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THE HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
BOOKS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS
BY A. A. MILNE
with Decorations by £. BH. SHEPARD:
WHEN WE WERE VERY YOUNG
NOW WE ARE SIX
WINNIE-THE-POOH
THE HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
THE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN STORY BOOK
SONG-BOOKS FROM THE POEMS OF A. A. MILNE
with Music by H. FRASER-SIMSON:
FOURTEEN SONGS
THE KING’S BREAKFAST
TEDDY BEAR AND OTHER SONGS
THE HUMS OF POOH
SONGS FROM “NOW WE ARE SIX”
E. P. DUTTON & CO., INC,
THE HOUSE AT POOH
CORNER BY A. A. MILNE
with decorations
by Ernest H. Shepard
PUBLISHED BY
E. P. DUTTON & CO., INC., NEW YORK
THE HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
COPYRIGHT, 1928, BY E. P. DUTTON & CO., INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
First Printing............... September, 1928
tooth ' Printing............... December, 1936
139th Printing.................... July, 1949
Reprinted, from new plates and engravings, and
type entirely reset ............-. August, 1950
igist Printing............... September, 1951
YRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE
AMERICAN BOOK-STRATFORD PRESS, INC., NEW YORK
DEDICATION
You gave me Christopher Robin, and then
You breathed new life in Pooh.
Whatever of each bas left my pen
Goes homing back to you.
My book is ready, and comes to greet
The mother it longs to see—
lt would be my present to you, my sweet,
If it weren't your gift to me.
Contradiction
A, INTRODUCTION is to introduce
people, but Christopher Robin and his friends, who
have already been introduced to you, are now going
to say Good-bye. So this is the opposite. When we
asked Pooh what the opposite of an Introduction
was, he said “The what of a what?” which didn’t
help us as much as we had hoped, but luckily Owl
kept his head and told us that the opposite of an
Introduction, my dear Pooh, was a Contradiction;
and, as he is very good at long words, I am sure
that that’s what it is.
Why we are having a Contradiction is because
last week when Christopher Robin said to me,
“What about that story you were going to tell me
about what happened to Pooh when——” I hap-
pened to say very quickly, “What about nine times
a hundred and seven?” And when we had done
that one, we had one about cows going through a
gate at two a minute, and there are three hundred
ix
x HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
in the field, so how many are left after an hour and
a half? We find these very exciting, and when we
have been extited quite enough, we curl up and go
to sleep ... and Pooh, sitting wakeful a little longer
on his chair by our pillow, thinks Grand Thoughts
to himself about Nothing, until he, too, closes his
eyes and nods his head, and follows us on tip-toe
into the Forest. There, still, we have magic adven-
tures, more wonderful than any I have told you
about; but now, when we wake up in the morning,
they are gone before we can catch hold of them.
How did the last one begin? “One day when Pooh
was walking in the Forest, there were one hundred
and seven cows on a gate...” No, you see, we have
lost it. It was the best, I think. Well, here are some
of the other ones, all that we shall remember now.
But, of course, it isn’t really Good-bye, because the
Forest will always be there .. . and anybody who
is Friendly with Bears can find it.
A. A. ML
CHAPTER
I.
IIL.
TI.
Contents
IN WHICH A House Is Built at Pooh Corner
for Eeyore
IN WHICH Tigger Comes to the Forest and
Has Breakfast
In wuicu A Search Is Organdized, and Piglet
Nearly Meets the Heffalump Again
. IN wuicH It Is Shown That Tiggers Don't
Climb Trees
. IN WHICH Rabbit Has a Busy Day, and We
Learn What Christopher Robin Does in the
Mornings
. IN wHicu Pooh Invents a New Game and
Eeyore Joins In
. IN WHIcH Tigger Is Unbounced
. IN WHICH Piglet Does a Very Grand Thing
. IN WHICH Eeyore Finds the Wolery and Owl
Moves Into It
. IN WHICH Christopher Robin and Pooh Come
to an Enchanted Place, and We Leave Them
There
xi
PAGE
19
36
54
72
160
THE HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
CHAPTER I
IN WHICH A House Is Built at Pooh Corner
for Eeyore
O.. pay when Pooh Bear had
nothing else to do, he thought he would do some-
thing, so he went round to Piglet’s house to see
what Piglet was doing. It was still snowing as he
stumped over the white forest track, and he ex-
pected to find Piglet warming his toes in front of
his fire, but to his surprise he saw that the door was
open, and the more he looked inside the more Piglet
wasn’t there.
“He’s out,” said Pooh sadly. “That’s what it is.
He’s not in. I shall have to go a fast Thinking Walk
by myself. Bother!”
But first he thought that he would knock very
loudly just to make quite sure . . . and while he
waited for Piglet not to answer, he jumped up and
down to keep warm, and a hum came suddenly into
his head, which seemed to him a Good Hum, such
as is Hummed Hopefully to Others.
1
2 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
The more it snows
(Tiddely pom),
The more it goes
(Tiddely pom),
The more it goes
(Tiddely pom),
On snowing.
And nobody knows
(Tiddely pom),
How cold my toes
(Tiddely pom),
How cold my toes
(Tiddely pom),
Are growing.
“So what I'll do,”’ said Pooh, “is PII do this. ’']
just go home first and see what the time is, and per-
haps I’ll put a muffler round my neck, and then I’ll
go and see Eeyore and sing it to him.”
He hurried back to his own house; and his mind
was so busy on the way with the hum that he was
getting ready for Eeyore that, when he suddenly
saw Piglet sitting in his best arm-chair, he could
only stand there rubbing his head and wondering
whose house he was in.
“Hallo, Piglet,” he said. “I thought you were out.”
“No,” said Piglet, “it’s you who were out, Pooh.”
“So it was,” said Pooh. “I knew one of us was.”
POOH BUILDS A HOUSE 3
He looked up at his clock, which had stopped at
five minutes to eleven some weeks ago.
“Nearly eleven o'clock,” said Pooh happily.
“You're just in time for a little smackerel of some-
thing,” and he put his head into the cupboard.
“And then we'll go out, Piglet, and sing my song to
Eeyore.”
“Which song, Pooh?”
“The one we’re going to sing to Eeyore,” ex-
plained Pooh.
The clock was still saying five minutes to eleven
when Pooh and Piglet set out on their way half an
hour later. The wind had dropped, and the snow,
tired of rushing round in circles trying to catch it-
4 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
self up, now fluttered gently down until it found a
place on which to rest, and sometimes the place was
Pooh’s nose and sometimes it wasn’t, and in a little
while Piglet was wearing a white muffler round his
neck and feeling more snowy behind the ears than
he had ever felt before.
2 ug ile eI te Be yt 7
Pa, 2 OF at irs Lisia\S
@,Y¥
“Pooh,” he said at last, and a little timidly, be-
cause he didn’t want Pooh to think he was Giving
In, “I was just wondering. How would it be if we
went home now and practised your song, and then
sang it to Eeyore tomorrow—or—or the next day,
when we happen to see him.”
“That’s a very good idea, Piglet,” said Pooh.
“We'll practise it now as we go along. But it’s no
POOH BUILDS A HOUSE 5
good going home to practise it, because it’s a special
Outdoor Song which Has To Be Sung In The
Snow.”
“Are you sure?” asked Piglet anxiously.
“Well, you'll see, Piglet, when you listen. Because
this is how it begins. The more it snows, tiddely
pom——”
“Tiddely what?” said Piglet.
“Pom,” said Pooh. “I put that in to make it more
hummy. The more it goes, tiddely pom, the more
”
“Didn’t you say snows?”
“Yes, but that was before.”
“Before the tiddely pom?”
“It was a different tiddely pom,” said Pooh, feel-
ing rather muddled now. “I'll sing it to you prop-
erly and then you'll see.”
So he sang it again.
The more it
SNOWS-tiddely-pom,
The more it
GOES-tiddely-pom
The more it
GOES-tiddely-pom
On
Snowing.
And nobody
KNOWS-tiddely-pom,
6 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
How cold my
TOES-tiddely-pom
How cold my
TOES-tiddely-pom
Are
Growing.
He sang it like that, which is much the best way
of singing it, and when he had finished, he waited
for Piglet to say that, of all the Outdoor Hums for
Snowy Weather he had ever heard, this was the
best. And, after thinking the matter out carefully,
Piglet said:
“Pooh,” he said solemnly, “it isn’t the toes so
much as the ears.”
POOH BUILDS A HOUSE 7
By this time they were getting near Eeyore’s
Gloomy Place, which was where he lived, and as it
was still very snowy behind Piglet’s ears, and he
was getting tired of it, they turned into a little pine
wood, and sat down on the gate which led into it.
They were out of the snow now, but it was very
cold, and to keep themselves warm they sang Pooh’s
song right through six times, Piglet doing the tid-
dely-poms and Pooh doing the rest of it, and both
of them thumping on the top of the gate with pieces
of stick at the proper places. And in a little while
they felt much warmer, and were able to talk again.
“ve been thinking,” said Pooh, “and what I’ve
been thinking is this. ’ve been thinking about
Eeyore.”
“What about Eeyore?”
“Well, poor Eeyore has nowhere to live.”
“Nor he has,” said Piglet.
“You have a house, Piglet, and I have a house, and
they are very good houses. And Christopher Robin
has a house, and Owl and Kanga and Rabbit have
houses, and even Rabbit’s friends and relations have
houses or somethings, but poor Eeyore has nothing.
So what I’ve been thinking is: Let’s build him a
house.”
“That,” said Piglet, “is a Grand Idea. Where shall
we build it?”
“We build it here,” said Pooh, “just by this wood,
8 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
out of the wind, because this is where I thought of
it. And we will call this Pooh Corner. And we will
build an Eeyore House with sticks at Pooh Corner
for Eeyore.”
“There was a heap of sticks on the other side of
the wood,” said Piglet. “I saw them. Lots and lots.
All piled up.”
“Thank you, Piglet,” said Pooh. “What you have
just said will be a Great Help to us, and because of
it I could call this place Poohanpiglet Corner if
POOH BUILDS A HOUSE 9
Pooh Corner didn’t sound better, which it does,
being smaller and more like a corner. Come along.”
So they got down off the gate and went round to
the other side of the wood to fetch the sticks.
Christopher Robin had spent the morning in-
doors going to Africa and back, and he had just got
off the boat and was wondering what it was like
outside, when who should come knocking at the
door but Eeyore.
“Hallo, Eeyore,” said Christopher Robin, as he
opened the door and came out. “How are you?”
“It’s snowing still,” said Eeyore gloomily.
ADO it is.”
“And freezing.”
“Ts it?”
“Yes,” said Eeyore. “However,” he said, brighten-
10 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
ing up a little, “we haven’t had an earthquake
lately.”
“What's the matter, Eeyore?”
“Nothing, Christopher Robin. Nothing important.
I suppose you haven’t seen a house or whatnot any-
where about?”
“What sort of a house?”’
“Just a house.”
“Who lives there?”
“I do. At least I thought I did. But I suppose I
don’t. After all, we can’t all have houses.”
“But, Eeyore, I didn’t know—I always thought——”
“T don’t know how it is, Christopher Robin, but
what with all this snow and one thing and another,
not to mention icicles and such-like, it isn’t so Hot
in my field about three o’clock in the morning as
some people think it is. It isn’t Close, if you know
what I mean—not so as to be uncomfortable. It isn’t
POOH BUILDS A HOUSE II
Stuffy. In fact, Christopher Robin,” he went on in
a loud whisper, “quite-between-ourselves-and-
don’t-tell-anybody, it’s Cold.”
“Oh, Eeyore!”
“And I said to myself: The others will be sorry if
I’m getting myself all cold. They haven’t got Brains,
any of them, only grey fluff that’s blown into their
heads by mistake, and they don’t Think, but if it
goes on snowing for another six weeks or so, one of
them will begin to say to himself: ‘Eeyore can’t be
_ so very much too Hot about three o’clock in the
morning.’ And then it will Get About. And they’ll
be Sorry.”
“Oh, Eeyore!” said Christopher Robin, feeling
very sorry already.
“I don’t mean you, Christopher Robin. You're
different. So what it all comes to is that I built my-
self a house down by my little wood.”
“Did you really? How exciting!”
12 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
‘The really exciting part,” said Eeyore in his most
melancholy voice, “is that when I left it this morn-
ing it was there, and when I came back it wasn’t.
Not at all, very natural, and it was only Eeyore’s
house. But still I just wondered.”
Christopher Robin didn’t stop to wonder. He
was already back in bis house, putting on his water-
proof hat, his waterproof boots and his waterproof
macintosh as fast as he could.
“We'll go and look for it at once,” he called out
to Eeyore.
“Sometimes,” said Eeyore, “when people have
quite finished taking a person’s house, there are one
or two bits which they don’t want and are rather
glad for the person to take back, if you know what
I mean. So I thought if we just went——”
“Come on,” said Christopher Robin, and off they
hurried, and in a very little time they got to the
corner of the field by the side of the pine-wood,
where Eeyore’s house wasn’t any longer.
“There!” said Eeyore. “Not a stick of it left! Of
course, I’ve still got all this snow to do what I like
with. One mustn’t complain.”
But Christopher Robin wasn’t listening to Eeyore,
he was listening to something else.
“Can’t you hear it?” he asked.
“What is it? Somebody laughing?”
“Listen.”
POOH BUILDS A HOUSE 13
They both listened . . . and they heard a deep
gruff voice saying in a singing voice that the more
it snowed the more it went on snowing, and a small
high voice tiddely-pomming in between.
“Tt’s Pooh,” said Christopher Robin excitedly... .
“Possibly,” said Eeyore.
“And Piglet!” said Christopher Robin excitedly.
“Probably,” said Eeyore. “What we want is a
Trained Bloodhound.”
The words of the song changed suddenly.
“We've finished our HOUSE!” sang the gruff
voice.
“Tiddely pom!” sang the squeaky one.
“Tt’s a beautiful HOUSE .. .”
“Tiddely pom...”
“I wish it were MINE. .. .”
14 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Tiddely pom. ...”
“Pooh!” shouted Christopher Robin. .. .
The singers on the gate stopped suddenly.
“It’s Christopher Robin!” said Pooh eagerly.
““He’s round by the place where we got all those
sticks from,” said Piglet.
“Come on,” said Pooh.
They climbed down their gate and hurried round
the corner of the wood, Pooh making welcoming
noises all the way.
“Why, here is Eeyore,” said Pooh, when he had
finished hugging Christopher Robin, and he nudged
Piglet, and Piglet nudged him, and they thought to
themselves what a lovely surprise they had got ready.
“Hallo, Eeyore.”
“Same to you, Pooh Bear, and twice on Thurs-
days,” said Eeyore gloomily.
Before Pooh could say: “Why Thursdays?”
Christopher Robin began to explain the sad story of
Eeyore’s Lost House. And Pooh and Piglet listened,
and their eyes seemed to get bigger and bigger.
“Where did you say it was?” asked Pooh.
‘Just here,” said Eeyore.
“Made of sticks?”
“Ves,”
“Oh!” said Piglet.
“What?” said Eeyore.
“T just said ‘Oh!’” said Piglet nervously. And so
POOH BUILDS A HOUSE 15
as to seem quite at ease he hummed Tiddely-pom
once or twice in a what-shall-we-do-now kind of
way.
“You're sure it was a house?” said Pooh. “I mean,
you're sure the house was just here?”
“Of course I am,” said Eeyore. And he murmured
to himself, “No brain at all some of them.”
“Why, what’s the matter, Pooh?” asked Chris-
topher Robin.
“Well,” said Pooh. ... “The fact is,” said Pooh
... “Well, the fact is,” said Pooh... “You see,”
said Pooh. ... “It’s like this,” said Pooh, and some-
thing seemed to tell him that he wasn’t explaining
very well, and he nudged Piglet again.
“It’s like this,” said Piglet quickly. . . . “Only
warmer,” he added after deep thought.
“What’s warmer?”
“The other side of the wood, where Eeyore’s
house is.”
“My house?” said Eeyore. “My house was here.’
“No,” said Piglet firmly. “The other side of the
wood.”
“Because of being warmer,” said Pooh.
“But I ought to know——”
“Come and look,” said Piglet simply, and he led
the way.
“There wouldn’t be two houses,” said Pooh. “Not
so close together.”
>
16 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
They came round the corner, and there was
Eeyore’s house, looking as comfy as anything.
“There you are,” said Piglet.
“Inside as well as outside,” said Pooh proudly.
Eeyore went inside . . . and came out again.
“It’s a remarkable thing,” he said. “It is my house,
and I built it where I said I did, so the wind must
POOH BUILDS A HOUSE 17
have blown it here. And the wind blew it right over
the wood, and blew it down here, and here it is as
good as ever. In fact, better in places.”
“Much better,” said Pooh and Piglet together.
“Tt just shows what can be done by taking a little
trouble,” said Eeyore. “Do you see, Pooh? Do you
see, Piglet? Brains first and then Hard Work. Look
18 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
at it! That's the way to build a house,” said Eeyore
proudly.
So they left him in it; and Christopher Robin
went back to lunch with his friends Pooh and Pig-
let, and on the way they told him of the Awful
Mistake they had made. And when he had finished
laughing, they all sang the Outdoor Song for Snowy
Weather the rest of the way home, Piglet, who was
still not quite sure of his voice, putting in the tiddely-
poms again.
“And I know it seems easy,” said Piglet to himself,
“but it isn’t every one who could do it.”
CHAPTER Il
IN WHICH Tigger Comes to the Forest
and Has Breakfast
WV oxce-rp-roow woke up
suddenly in the middle of the night and listened.
Then he got out of bed, and lit his candle, and
stumped across the room to see if anybody was try-
ing to get into his honey-cupboard, and they
weren’t, so he stumped back again, blew out his
candle, and got into bed. Then he heard the noise
again.
“Is that you, Piglet?” he said.
But it wasn’t.
“Come in, Christopher Robin,” he said.
But Christopher Robin didn’t.
“Tell me about it tomorrow, Eeyore,” said Pooh
sleepily.
But the noise went on.
“W orraworraworraworraworra,” said Whatever-
it-was, and Pooh found that he wasn’t asleep after all.
“What can it be?” he thought. “There are lots of
19
20 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
noises in the Forest, but this is a different one. It
isn’t a growl, and it isn’t a purr, and it isn’t a bark,
and it isn’t the noise-you-make-before-beginning-a-
piece-of-poetry, but it’s a noise of some kind, made
by a strange animal. And he’s making it outside my
door. So I shall get up and ask him not to do it.”
o
4;
He got out of bed and opened his front door.
“Hallo!” said Pooh, in case there was anything
outside.
“Hallo!” said Whatever-it-was.
“Oh!” said Pooh. “Hallo!”
“Hallo!”
“Oh, there you are!” said Pooh. “Hallo!”
“Hallo!” said the Strange Animal, wondering how
long this was going on.
TIGGER HAS BREAKFAST 21
Pooh was just going to say “Hallo!” for the
fourth time when he thought that he wouldn’t, so
he said: “Who is it?” instead.
“Me,” said a voice.
“Oh!” said Pooh. “Well, come here.”
So Whatever-it-was came here, and in the light
of the candle he and Pooh looked at each other.
“I’m Pooh,” said Pooh.
“I’m Tigger,” said Tigger.
“Oh!” said Pooh, for he had never seen an animal
like this before. “Does Christopher Robin know
about you?”
“Of course he does,” said Tigger.
“Well,” said Pooh, “it’s the middle of the night,
which is a good time for going to sleep. And to-
morrow morning we'll have some honey for break-
fast. Do Tiggers like honey?”
“They like everything,” said Tigger cheerfully.
“Then if they like going to sleep on the floor, I'll
go back to bed,” said Pooh, “and we’ll do things in
the morning. Good night.” And he got back into
bed and went fast asleep.
When he awoke in the morning, the first thing he
saw was Tigger, sitting in front of the glass and
looking at himself.
“Hallo!” said Pooh.
“Hallo!” said Tigger. “I’ve found somebody just
like me. I thought I was the only one of them.”
22 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
Pooh got out of bed, and began to explain what
a looking-glass was, but just as he was getting to
the interesting part, Tigger said:
“Excuse me a moment, but there’s something
climbing up your table,” and with one loud Worra-
worraworraworraworra he jumped at the end of
the tablecloth, pulled it to the ground, wrapped
himself up in it three times, rolled to the other end
of the room, and, after a terrible struggle, got his
head into the daylight again, and said cheerfully:
“Have I won?”
“That’s my tablecloth,” said Pooh, as he began to
unwind Tigger.
“I wondered what it was,” said Tigger.
“It goes on the table and you put things on it.”
TIGGER HAS BREAKFAST 23
“Then why did it try to bite me when I wasn’t
looking?”
“T don’t think it did,” said Pooh.
“Tt tried,” said Tigger, “but I was too quick for it.’
>
Pooh put the cloth back on the table, and he put
a large honey-pot on the cloth, and they sat down
to breakfast. And as soon as they sat down, Tigger
took a large mouthful of honey . . . and he looked
up at the ceiling with his head on one side, and
made exploring noises with his tongue and consid-
ering noises, and what-have-we-got-here noises . . .
and then he said in a very decided voice:
“Tiggers don’t like honey.”
24 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Oh!” said Pooh, and tried to make it sound Sad
and Regretful. “I thought they liked everything.”
“Everything except honey,” said Tigger.
Pooh felt rather pleased about this, and said that,
as soon as he had finished his own breakfast, he
would take Tigger round to Piglet’s house, and
Tigger could try some of Piglet’s haycorns.
“Thank you, Pooh,” said Tigger, “because hay-
corns is really what Tiggers like best.”
So after breakfast they went round to see Piglet,
and Pooh explained as they went that Piglet was a
Very Small Animal who didn’t like bouncing, and
asked Tigger not to be too Bouncy just at first.
And Tigger, who had been hiding behind trees and
jumping out on Pooh’s shadow when it wasn’t
looking, said that Tiggers were only bouncy before
breakfast, and that as soon as they had had a few
haycorns they became Quiet and Refined. So by
and by they knocked at the door of Piglet’s house.
“Hallo, Pooh,” said Piglet.
“Hallo, Piglet. This is Tigger.”
“Oh, is it?” said Piglet, and he edged round to the
other side of the table. “I thought Tiggers were
smaller than that.”
“Not the big ones,” said Tigger.
“They like haycorns,” said Pooh, “so that’s what
we've come for, because poor Tigger hasn’t had
any breakfast yet.”
TIGGER HAS BREAKFAST 25
Piglet pushed the bowl of haycorns towards
Tigger, and said: “Help yourself,” and then he got
close up to Pooh and felt much braver, and said,
“So you're Tigger? Well, well!” in a careless sort
of voice. But Tigger said nothing because his mouth
was full of haycorns. ...
After a long munching noise he said:
“Fe-ers 0 i a-ors.”
And when Pooh and Piglet said “What?” he said
“Skoos ee,” and went outside for a moment.
When he came back he said firmly:
“Tiggers don’t like haycorns.”
“But you said they liked everything except honey,”
said Pooh.
“Everything except honey and haycorns,” ex-
plained Tigger.
When he heard this Pooh said, “Oh, I see!” and
Piglet, who was rather glad that Tiggers didn’t like
haycorns, said, ‘“‘What about thistles?”
“Thistles,” said Tigger, “is what Tiggers like
best.”
“Then let’s go along and see Eeyore,” said Piglet.
So the three of them went; and after they had
walked and walked and walked, they came to the
part of the Forest where Eeyore was.
“Hallo, Eeyore!” said Pooh. “This is Tigger.”
“What is?” said Eeyore.
“This,” explained Pooh and Piglet together, and
TIGGER HAS BREAKFAST 2?
Tigger smiled his happiest smile and said nothing.
Eeyore walked all round Tigger one way, and
then turned and walked all round him the other way.
“What did you say it was?” he asked.
“Tigger.”
“Ah!” said Eeyore.
“He’s just come,” explained Piglet.
“Ah!” said Eeyore again.
He thought for a long time and then said:
“When is he going?”
Pooh explained to Eeyore that Tigger was a
great friend of Christopher Robin’s, who had come
to stay in the Forest, and Piglet explained to Tigger
that he mustn’t mind what Eeyore said because he
was always gloomy; and Eeyore explained to Piglet
that, on the contrary, he was feeling particularly
cheerful this morning; and Tigger explained to
anybody who was listening that he hadn’t had any
breakfast yet.
“T knew there was something,” said Pooh. “Tig-
gers always eat thistles, so that was why we came
to see you, Eeyore.”
“Don’t mention it, Pooh.”
“Oh, Eeyore, I didn’t mean that I didn’t want to
see you——”
“Quite—quite. But your new stripy friend—nat-
urally, he wants his breakfast. What did you say his
name was?”
28 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Tigger.”
“Then come this way, Tigger.”
Eeyore led the way to the most thistly-looking
patch of thistles that ever was, and waved a hoof
at it.
“A little patch I was keeping for my birthday,”
he said; “but, after all, what are birthdays? Here
today and gone tomorrow. Help yourself, Tigger.”
Tigger thanked him and looked a little anxiously
at Pooh.
“Are these really thistles?” he whispered.
“Yes,” said Pooh.
“What Tiggers like best?”
“That's nght,” said Pooh.
“T see,” said Tigger.
So he took a large mouthful, and he gave a large
crunch,
“Ow!” said Tigger.
He sat down and put his paw in his mouth.
“What’s the matter?” asked Pooh.
“Hot!” mumbled Tigger.
“Your friend,” said Eeyore, “appears to have
bitten on a bee.”
Pooh’s friend stopped shaking his head to get the
prickles out, and explained that Tiggers didn’t like
thistles.
“Then why bend a perfectly good one?” asked
Eeyore.
TIGGER HAS BREAKFAST 29
“But you said,” began Pooh—“you said that Tig-
gers liked everything except honey and haycorns.”
“And thistles,” said Tigger, who was now running
round in circles with his tongue hanging out.
Pooh looked at him sadly.
“What are we going to do?” he asked Piglet.
Piglet knew the answer to that, and he said at
once that they must go and see Christopher Robin.
“You'll find him with Kanga,” said Eeyore. He
came close to Pooh, and said in a loud whisper:
“Could you ask your friend to do his exercises
somewhere else? I shall be having lunch directly,
and don’t want it bounced on just before I begin. A
trifling matter, and fussy of me, but we all have our
little ways.”
Pooh nodded solemnly and called to Tigger.
“Come along and we’ll go and see Kanga. She’s
sure to have lots of breakfast for you.”
Tigger finished his last circle and came up to
Pooh and Piglet.
30 NOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Hot!” he explained with a large and friendly
smile. ““Come on!” and he rushed off.
Pooh and Piglet walked slowly after him. And as
they walked Piglet said nothing, because he couldn’t
think of anything, and Pooh said nothing, because
he was thinking of a poem. And when he had
thought of it he began:
What shall we do about poor little Tigger?
If he never eats nothing he'll never get bigger.
He doesn’t like honey and haycorns and thistles
Because of the taste and because of the bristles.
And all the good things which an animal likes
Have the wrong sort of swallow or too many spikes.
“He’s quite big enough anyhow,” said Piglet.
“He isn’t really very big.”
“Well, he seevzs so.”
Pooh was thoughtful when he heard this, and
then he murmured to himself:
But whatever his weight in pounds, shillings, and
ounces,
He always seems bigger because of his bounces.
“And that’s the whole poem,” he said. “Do you
like it, Piglet?”
TIGGER HAS BREAKFAST 31
“All except the shillings,” said Piglet. “I don’t think
they ought to be there.”
“They wanted to come in after the pounds,” ex-
plained Pooh, “so I let them. It is the best way to
write poetry, letting things come.”
“Oh, I didn’t know,” said Piglet.
Tigger had been bouncing in front of them all
this time, turning round every now and then to ask,
“Is this the way?”—and now at last they came in
sight of Kanga’s house, and there was Christopher
Robin. Tigger rushed up to him.
“Oh, there you are, Tigger!” said Christopher
Robin. “I knew you'd be somewhere.”
“T’ve been finding things in the Forest,” said Tig-
ger importantly. “I’ve found a pooh and a piglet
and an eeyore, but I can’t find any breakfast.”
Pooh and Piglet came up and hugged Chnisto-
pher Robin, and explained what had been hap-
pening.
“Don’t you know what Tiggers like?” asked Pooh.
“I expect if I thought very hard I should,” said
Christopher Robin, “but I thought Tigger knew.”
“I do,” said Tigger. “Everything there is in the
world except honey and haycorns and—what were
those hot things called?”
“Thistles.”
“Yes, and those.”
TIGGER HAS BREAKFAST 33
“Oh, well then, Kanga can give you some break-
fast.”
So they went into Kanga’s house, and when Roo
had said, “Hallo, Pooh,” and ‘Hallo, Piglet” once,
and “Hallo, Tigger” twice, because he had never
said it before and it sounded funny, they told Kanga
what they wanted, and Kanga said very kindly,
“Well, look in my cupboard, Tigger dear, and see
what you'd like.” Because she knew at once that,
however big Tigger seemed to be, he wanted as
much kindness as Roo.
“Shall I look, too?” said Pooh, who was beginning
to feel a little eleven o’clockish. And he found a
small tin of condensed milk, and something seemed
to tell him that Tiggers didn’t like this, so he took
it into a corner by itself, and went with it to see
that nobody interrupted it.
But the more Tigger put his nose into this and his
paw into that, the more things he found which Tig-
gers didn’t like. And when he had found everything
in the cupboard, and couldn’t eat any of it, he said
to Kanga, “What happens now?”
But Kanga and Christopher Robin and Piglet
were all standing round Roo, watching him have his
Extract of Malt. And Roo was saying, “Must I?”
and Kanga was saying “Now, Roo dear, you re-
member what you promised.”
“What is it?” whispered Tigger to Piglet
34 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“His Strengthening Medicine,” said Piglet. “He
hates it.”
So Tigger came closer, and he leant over the
back of Roo’s chair, and suddenly he put out his
tongue, and took one large golollop, and, with a
sudden jump of surprise, Kanga said, “Oh!” and
then clutched at the spoon again just as it was dis-
appearing, and pulled it safely back out of Tigger’s
mouth, But the Extract of Malt had gone.
TIGGER HAS BREAKFAST 35
“Tigger dear!” said Kanga.
“He's taken my medicine, he’s taken my medicine,
he’s taken my medicine!” sang Roo happily, think-
ing it was a tremendous joke.
Then Tigger looked up at the ceiling, and closed
his eyes, and his tongue went round and round his
chops, in case he had left any outside, and a peace-
ful smile came over his face as he said, “So that’s
what Tiggers like!”
Which explains why he always lived at Kanga’s
house afterwards, and had Extract of Malt for
breakfast, dinner, and tea. And sometimes, when
Kanga thought he wanted strengthening, he had a
spoonful or two of Roo’s breakfast after meals as
medicine.
“But / think,” said Piglet to Pooh, “that he’s been
strengthened quite enough.”
CHAPTER III
IN WHICH A Search Is Organdized,
and Piglet Nearly Meets
the Heffalump Again
ae was sitting in his house one
day, counting his pots of honey, when there came a
knock on the door.
“Fourteen,” said Pooh. “Come in. Fourteen. Or
was it fifteen? Bother. That’s muddled me.”
“Hallo, Pooh,” said Rabbit.
‘“Ffallo, Rabbit. Fourteen, wasn’t it?”
“What was?”
“My pots of honey what I was counting.”
36
THE SEARCH FOR SMALL 37
“Fourteen, that’s right.”
“Are you sure?”
“No,” said Rabbit. “Does it matter?”
“T just like to know,” said Pooh humbly. “So as I
can say to myself: ‘I’ve got fourteen pots of honey
left.’ Or fifteen, as the case may be. It’s sort of
comforting.”
“Well, let’s call it sixteen,” said Rabbit. “What I
came to say was: Have you seen Small anywhere
about?”
“I don’t think so,” said Pooh. And then, after
thinking a little more, he said: “Who is Small?”
“One of my friends-and-relations,” said Rabbit
carelessly.
This didn’t help Pooh much, because Rabbit had
so many friends-and-relations, and of such different
sorts and sizes, that he didn’t know whether he
ought to be looking for Small at the top of an oak-
tree or in the petal of a buttercup.
“T haven’t seen anybody today,” said Pooh, “not
so as to say ‘Hallo, Small,’ to. Did you want him for
anything?”
“I don’t want him,” said Rabbit. “But it’s always
useful to know where a friend-and-relation 35,
whether you want him or whether you don’t.”
“Qh, I see,” said Pooh. “Is he lost?”
“Well,” said Rabbit, “nobody has seen him for a
long time, so I suppose he is. Anyhow,” he went on
38 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
importantly, “I promised Christopher Robin I'd
Organize a Search for him, so come on.”
Pooh said good-bye affectionately to his fourteen
pots of honey, and hoped they were fifteen; and he
and Rabbit went out into the Forest.
“Now,” said Rabbit, “this is a Search, and I’ve
Organized it——”
“Done what to it?” said Pooh.
“Organized it. Which means—well, it’s what you
do to a Search, when you don’t all look in the same
place at once. So I want you, Pooh, to search by the
Six Pine Trees first, and then work your way to-
wards Owl’s House, and look out for me there. Do
you see?”
“No,” said Pooh. “What——”
“Then I'll see you at Owl’s House in about an
hour’s time.”
“Is Piglet organdized too?”
“We all are,” said Rabbit, and off he went.
As soon as Rabbit was out of sight, Pooh remem-
bered that he had forgotten to ask who Small was,
and whether he was the sort of friend-and-relation
who settled on one’s nose, or the sort who got trod-
den on by mistake, and as it was Too Late Now, he
thought he would begin the Hunt by looking for
Piglet, and asking him what they were looking for
before he looked for it.
40 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“And it’s no good looking at the Six Pine Trees
for Piglet,” said Pooh to himself, “because he’s been
organdized in a special place of his own. So I shall
have to look for the Special Place first. I wonder
where it is.” And he wrote it down in his head like
this:
ORDER OF LOOKING FOR THINGS
. Special Place. (To find Piglet.)
. Piglet. (To find who Small is.)
. Small. (To find Small.)
. Rabbit. (To tell him Pve found Small.)
. Small Again. (To tell bim Pve found Rabbit.)
w ww Mm
mp
“Which makes it look like a bothering sort of
day,” thought Pooh, as he stumped along.
The next moment the day became very bother-
ing indeed, because Pooh was so busy not looking
where he was going that he stepped on a piece of
the Forest which had been left out by mistake; and
he only just had time to think to himself: “I’m fly-
ing. What Owl does. I wonder how you stop——”
rvhen he stopped.
Bump!
“Ow!” squeaked something.
“That’s funny,” thought Pooh. “I said ‘Ow!’ with-
out really oo’ing.”
“Help!” said a small, high voice.
THE SEARCH FOR SMALL 41
“That’s me again,” thought Pooh. “I’ve had an
Accident, and fallen down a well, and my voice has
gone all squeaky and works before I’m ready for it,
because I’ve done something to myself inside.
Bother!”
“Help—help!”
“There you are! I say things when I’m not trying.
So it must be a very bad Accident.” And then he
thought that perhaps when he did try to say things
he wouldn’t be able to; so, to make sure, he said
loudly: “A Very Bad Accident to Pooh Bear.”
“Pooh!” squeaked the voice.
“It’s Piglet!” cried Pooh eagerly. “Where are
you?”
42 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Underneath,” said Piglet in an underneath sort
of way.
“Underneath what?”
“You,” squeaked Piglet. “Get up
1?
“Oh!” said Pooh, and scrambled up as quickly as
he could. “Did I fall on you, Piglet?”
“You fell on me,” said Piglet, feeling himself all
over.
“I didn’t mean to,” said Pooh sorrowfully.
“I didn’t mean to be underneath,” said Piglet sadly.
“But I’m all right now, Pooh, and I am so glad it
was you.”
“What’s happened?” said Pooh. “Where are we?”
“T think we're in a sort of Pit. I was walking
along, looking for somebody, and then suddenly I
wasn’t any more, and just when I got up to see
where I was, something fell on me. And it was you.”
“So it was,” said Pooh.
THE SEARCH FOR SMALL 43
“Yes,” said Piglet. “Pooh,” he went on nervously,
and came a little closer, “do you think we're in a
Trap?”
Pooh hadn’t thought about it at all, but now he
nodded. For suddenly he remembered how he and
Piglet had once made a Pooh Trap for Heffalumps,
and he guessed what had happened. He and Piglet
had fallen into a Heffalump Trap for Poohs! That
was what it was.
“What happens when the Heffalump comes?”
asked Piglet tremblingly, when he had heard the
news.
“Perhaps he won’t notice you, Piglet,” said Pooh
encouragingly, “because you’re a Very Small
Animal,”
“But he'll notice you, Pooh.”
“He'll notice me, and I shall notice him,” said
Pooh, thinking it out. “We'll notice each other for
a long time, and then he’ll say: ‘Ho-ho!’”
Piglet shivered a little at the thought
of that “Ho-bo!” and his ears began to
twitch.
“W-what will you say?” he asked.
Pooh tried to think of something he would say,
but the more he thought, the more he felt that there
is no real answer to “Ho-ho!” said by a Heffalump
in the sort of voice this Heffalump was going to say
It 1m
44 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“I shan’t say anything,” said Pooh at last. “I shall
just hum to myself, as if I was waiting for some-
thing.”
“Then perhaps he’ll say, ‘Ho-ho/’ again?” sug-
gested Piglet anxiously.
“He will,” said Pooh.
Piglet’s ears twitched so quickly that he had to
lean them against the side of the Trap to keep them
quiet.
“He will say it again,” said Pooh, “and I shall go
on humming. And that will Upset him. Because
when you say ‘Ho-ho’ twice, in a gloating sort of
way, and the other person only hums, you suddenly
find, just as you begin to say it the third time—that
—well, you find——”
“What?”
“That it isn’t,”’ said Pooh.
“Isn’t what?”
Pooh knew what he meant, but, being a Bear of
Very Little Brain, couldn’t think of the words.
“Well, it just isn’t,” he said again.
“You mean it isn’t ho-bo-ish any more?” said Pig-
let hopefully.
Pooh looked at him admiringly and said that that
was what he meant—if you went on humming
all the time, because you couldn’t go on saying
“Ho-bo!” for ever.
“But he’ll say something else,” said Piglet.
THE SEARCH FOR SMALL 45
“That’s just it. He’ll say: ‘What’s all this?’ And
then / shall say—and this is a very good idea, Piglet,
which I’ve just thought of—I shall say: ‘It’s a trap
for a Heffalump which I’ve made; and I’m waiting
for the Heffalump to fall in.’ And I shall go on
humming. That will Unsetcle him.”
“Pooh!” cried Piglet, and now it was bis turn to
be the admiring one. “You've saved us!”
“Have I?” said Pooh, not feeling quite sure.
But Piglet was quite sure; and his mind ran on,
and he saw Pooh and the Heffalump talking to each
other, and he thought suddenly, and a little sadly,
that it would have been rather nice if it had been
Piglet and the Heffalump talking so grandly to
each other, and not Pooh, much as he loved Pooh;
because he really had more brain than Pooh, and
the conversation would go better if he and not Pooh
were doing one side of it, and it would be comfort-
ing afterwards in the evenings to look back on the
day when he answered a Heffalump back as bravely
as if the Heffalump wasn’t there. It seemed so easy
now. He knew just what he would say:
HeEFFaLump (gloatingly): “Ho-ho!”
Picter (carelessly): “Tra-la-la, tra-la-la.”
HerraLump (surprised, and not quite so sure of
himself): “Ho-bo!”
Picter (more carelessly still): “Tiddle-um-tuim,
tiddle-um-tum.”
46 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
HEFFALUMP (beginning to say Ho-ho and turn-
ing it awkwardly into a cough): “H’r’m! What's
all this?”
PicLeT (surprised): “Hullo! This is a trap I’ve
made, and I’m waiting for a Heffalump to fall
into it.”
HeFFaLump (greatly disappointed): “Oh!”
(After a long silence): “Are you sure?”
Pictet: “Yes.”
HerraLumpe: “Oh!” (nervously): “I—I thought
it was a trap I’d made to catch Piglets.”
PicLeT (surprised): “Oh, no!”
Herratump: “Oh!” (Apologetically): “II
must have got it wrong, then.”
Picet: “I’m afraid so.” (Politely): “Pm sorry.”
(He goes on humming.)
Herratump: “Well—well—I—well. I suppose I'd
better be getting back?”
PicLET (looking up carelessly): “Must you?
Well, if you see Christopher Robin anywhere, you
might tell him I want him.”
HeEFFALUMP (eager to please): “Certainly! Cer-
tainly!” (He burries off.)
Poou (who wasn’t going to be there, but we find
we can’t do without him): “Oh, Piglet, how brave
and clever you are!”
Pictet (modestly): “Not at all, Pooh.” (And
THE SEARCH FOR SMALL 47
then, when Christopher Robin comes, Pooh can tell
him all about it.)
While Piglet was dreaming this happy dream,
and Pooh was wondering again whether it was
fourteen or fifteen, the Search for Small was still
going on all over the Forest. Small’s real name was
Very Small Beetle, but he was called Small for
short, when he was spoken to at all, which hardly
ever happened except when somebody said: “Really,
Smal]'” He had been staying with Christopher
Robin for a few SN and he started round a
gorse-bush for exercise, but instead of coming back
the other way, as expected, he hadn’t, so nobody
knew where he was.
“I expect he’s just gone home,” said Christopher
Robin to Rabbit.
48 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Did he say Good-bye-and-thank-you-for-a-nice-
time?” said Rabbit.
“He’d only just said how-do-you-do,” said Chris-
topher Robin.
“Ha!” said Rabbit. After thinking a little, he went
on: “Has he written a letter saying how much he
enjoyed himself, and how sorry he was he had to go
so suddenly?”
Christopher Robin didn’t think he had.
“Ha!” said Rabbit again, and looked very impor-
tant. “This is Serious. He is Lost. We must begin
the Search at once.”
Christopher Robin, who was thinking of some-
thing else, said: “Where’s Pooh?”—but Rabbit had
gone. So he went into his house and drew a picture
of Pooh going a long walk at about seven o’clock in
the morning, and then he climbed to the top of his
tree and climbed down again, and then he wondered
what Pooh was doing, and went across the Forest
to see.
It was not long before he came to the Gravel Pit,
and he looked down, and there were Pooh and Pig-
let, with their backs to him, dreaming happily.
“Ho-ho!’ said Christopher Robin loudly and
suddenly.
Piglet jumped six inches in the air with Surprise
and Anxiety, but Pooh went on dreaming.
“It’s the Heffalump!” thought Piglet nervously.
50 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Now, then!” He hummed in his throat a little, so
that none of the words should stick, and then, in
the most delightfully easy way, he said: ““Tra-la-la,
tra-la-la,” as if he had just thought of it. But he
didn’t look round, because if you look round and
see a Very Fierce Heffalump looking down at you,
sometimes you forget what you were going to say.
“Rum-tum-tum-tiddle-um,” said Christopher Robin
in a voice like Pooh’s. Because Pooh had once in-
vented a song which went:
Tra-la-la, tra-la-la,
Tra-la-la, tra-la-la,
Rum-tum-tum-tiddle-um.
So whenever Christopher Robin sings it, he al-
ways sings it in a Pooh-voice, which seems to suit it
better.
THE SEARCH FOR SMALL 5t
“He’s said the wrong thing,” thought Piglet anx-
iously. “He ought to have said, ‘Ho-bo/’ again. Per-
haps I had better say it for him.” And, as fiercely
as he could, Piglet said: ‘‘Ho-ho!”
“How did you get there, Piglet?” said Christopher
Robin in his ordinary voice.
“This is Terrible,” thought Piglet. “First he talks
in Pooh’s voice, and then he talks in Christopher
Robin’s voice, and he’s doing it so as to Unsettle
me.” And being now Completely Unsettled, he said
very quickly and squeakily: “This is a trap for
Poohs, and I’m waiting to fall in it, ho-bo, what’s all
this, and then I say ho-ho again.”
“What?” said Christopher Robin.
“A trap for ho-ho’s,” said Piglet huskily. “I’ve just
made it, and I’m waiting for the ho-ho to come-
come.”
How long Piglet would have gone on like this I
don’t know, but at that moment Pooh woke up sud-
denly and decided that it was sixteen. So he got up;
and as he turned his head so as to soothe himself in
that awkward place in the middle of the back
where something was tickling him, he saw Christo-
pher Robin.
“Hallo!” he shouted joyfully.
“Hallo, Pooh.”
Piglet looked up, and looked away again. And he
felt so Foolish and Uncomfortable that he had al-
52 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
most decided to run away to Sea and be a Sailor,
when suddenly he saw something.
“Pooh!” he cried. “There’s something climbing up
your back.”
“T thought there was,” said Pooh.
“Tt’s Small!” cried Piglet.
“Oh, that’s who it is, is it?” said Pooh.
“Christopher Robin, I've found Small!” cried
Piglet.
“Well done, Piglet,” said Christopher Robin.
And at these encouraging words Piglet felt quite
happy again, and decided not to be a Sailor after all.
So when Christopher Robin had helped them out of
the Gravel Pit, they all went off together hand-in-
hand.
And two days later Rabbit happened to meet
Eeyore in the Forest.
“Hallo, Eeyore,” he said, “what are you looking
for?”
THE SEARCH FOR SMALL 53
“Small, of course,” said Eeyore. “Haven’t you any
brain?”
“Oh, but didn’t I tell you?” said Rabbit. “Small
was found two days ago.”
There was 2 moment’s silence.
“Ha-ha,” said Eeyore bitterly. ‘“Merriment and
what-not. Don’t apologize. It’s just what would
happen.”
CHAPTER IV
IN WHICH It Is Shown That Tiggers
Don’t Climb Trees
O.. DAY when Pooh was think-
ing, he thought he would go and see Eeyore, be-
cause he hadn’t seen him since yesterday. And as he
walked through the heather, singing to himself, he
suddenly remembered that he hadn’t seen Owl since
the day before yesterday, so he thought that he
would just look in at the Hundred Acre Wood on
the way and see if Owl was at home.
Well, he went on singing, until he came to the
part of the stream where the stepping-stones were,
and when he was in the middle of the third stone
he began to wonder how Kanga and Roo and Tig-
ger were getting on, because they all lived together
in a different part of the Forest. And he thought, “I
haven’t seen Roo for a long time, and if I don’t see
him today it will be a still longer time.” So he sat
down on the stone in the middle of the stream, and
sang another verse of his song, while he wondered
what to do.
54
TIGGERS DON’T CLIMB TREES 55
The other verse of the song was like this:
I could spend a happy morning
Seeing Roo,
I could spend a happy morning
Being Pooh.
For it doesn’t seem to matter,
If I don’t get any fatter
(And I dom’t get any fatter),
What I do.
Ny
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The sun was so delightfully warm, and the stone,
which had been sitting in it for a long time, was so
warm, too, that Pooh had almost decided to go on
56 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
being Pooh in the middle of the stream for the rest
of the morning, when he remembered Rabbit.
“Rabbit,” said Pooh to himself. “I like talking to
Rabbit. He talks about sensible things. He doesn’t
use long, difficult words, like Owl. He uses short,
easy words, like ‘What about lunch?’ and ‘Help
yourself, Pooh.’ I suppose really, I ought to go and
see Rabbit.”
Which made him think of another verse:
Oh, I like his way of talking,
Yes, I do.
It’s the nicest way of talking
Just for two.
And a Help-yourself with Rabbit
Though it may become a habit,
Is a pleasant sort of habit
For a Pooh.
So when he had sung this, he got up off his stone,
walked back across the stream, and set off for Rab-
bit’s house.
But he hadn’t got far before he began to say to
himself:
“Yes, but suppose Rabbit is out?”
“Or suppose I get stuck in his front door again,
coming out, as I did once when his front door wasn’t
big enough?”
“Because I know I’m not getting fatter, but his
front door may be getting thinner.”
“So wouldn’t it be better if——”
TIGGERS DON’T CLIMB TREES 57
And all the time he was saying things like this he
was going more and more westerly, without think-
ing... until suddenly he found himself at his own
front door again.
And it was eleven o’clock.
Which was Time-for-a-little-something. . . .
Half an hour later he was doing what he had al-
ways really meant to do, he was stumping off to
Piglet’s house. And as he walked, he wiped his
mouth with the back of his paw, and sang rather a
fluffy song through the fur. It went like this:
I could spend a happy morning
Seeing Piglet.
And I couldn’t spend a happy morning
Not seeing Piglet.
And it doesn’t seem to matter
If I don’t see Owl and Eeyore
(or any of the others),
And I’m not going to see Owl or Eeyore
(or any of the others)
Or Christopher Robin.
Written down, like this, it doesn’t seem a very
good song, but coming through pale fawn fluff at
about half-past eleven on a very sunny morning, it
seemed to Pooh to be one of the best songs he had
ever sung. So he went on singing it.
Piglet was busy digging a small hole
in the ground outside his house. ASS
“Hallo, Piglet,” said Pooh. a a=
58 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Hallo, Pooh,” said Piglet, giving a jump of sur-
prise. “I knew it was you.”
“So did I,” said Pooh. “What are you doing?”
“T’m planting a haycorn, Pooh, so that it can grow
up into an oak-tree, and have lots of haycorns just
outside the front door instead of having to walk
miles and miles, do you see, Pooh?”
“Supposing it doesn’t?” said Pooh.
“Tt will, because Christopher Robin says it will, so
that’s why I’m planting it.”
“Well,” said Pooh, “if I plant a honeycomb out-
side my house, then it will grow up into a bee-
hive.”
Piglet wasn’t quite sure about this.
“Or a piece of a honeycomb,” said Pooh, “so as
not to waste too much. Only then I might only get
a piece of a beehive, and it might be the wrong
piece, where the bees were buzzing and not hunny-
ing. Bother.”
Piglet agreed that that would be rather bothering.
“Besides, Pooh, it’s a very difficult thing, planting
unless you know how to do it,” he said; and he put
the acorn in the hole he had made, and covered
it up with earth,
“ Saf (
and jumped on it. geet
TIGGERS DON’T CLIMB TREES 59
“I do know,” said Pooh, “because Christopher
Robin gave me a mastershalum seed, and I planted
it, and I’m going to have mastershalums all over the
front door.”
“I thought they were called nasturtiums,” said
Piglet timidly, as he went on jumping.
“No,” said Pooh. “Not these. These are called
mastershalums.”
When Piglet had finished jumping, he wiped his
paws on his front, and said, “What shall we do
now?” and Pooh said, “Let’s go and see Kanga and
Roo and Tigger,” and Piglet said, “Y-yes. L-lets’”—
because he was still a little anxious about Tigger,
who was a Very Bouncy Animal, with a way of
saying How-do-you-do, which always left your
ears full of sand, even after Kanga had said, “Gently,
Tigger dear,” and had helped you up again. So they
set off for Kanga’s house.
Now it happened that Kanga had felt rather
motherly that morning, and Wanting to Count
Things—like Roo’s vests, and how many pieces of
soap there were left, and the two clean spots in
Tigger’s feeder; so she had sent them out with a
packet of watercress sandwiches for Roo and a
packet of extract-of-malt sandwiches for Tigger, to
have a nice long morning in the Forest not getting
into mischief. And off they had gone.
60 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
And as they went, Tigger told Roo (who wanted
to know) all about the things that Tiggers could do.
“Can they fly?” asked Roo.
“Yes,” said Tigger, “they’re very good flyers,
Tiggers are. Stornry good flyers.”
“Oo!” said Roo. “Can they fly as well as Owl?”
“Yes,” said Tigger. “Only they don’t want to.”
“Why don’t they want to?”
“Well, they just don’t like it, somehow.”
Roo couldn’t understand this, because he thought
it would be lovely to be able to fly, but Tigger said
it was difficult to explain to anybody who wasn’t a
Tigger himself.
“Well,” said Roo, “can they jump as far as
Kangas?”
TIGGERS DON’T CLIMB TREES 61
“Yes,” said Tigger. “When they want to.”
“I Jove jumping,” said Roo. “Let’s see who can
jump farthest, you or me.”
“I can,” said Tigger. “But we mustn’t stop now,
or we shall be late.”
“Late for what?”
“For whatever we want to be in time for,” said
Tigger, hurrying on.
In a little while they came to the Six Pine Trees.
“T can swim,” said Roo. “TI fell into the river, and
I swimmed. Can Tiggers swim?”
“Of course they can. Tiggers can do everything.”
“Can they climb trees better than Pooh?” asked
Roo, stopping under the tallest Pine Tree, and look-
ing up at it.
“Climbing trees it what they do best,” said Tigger.
“Much better than Poohs.”
“Could they climb this one?”
“They’re always climbing trees like that,” said
Tigger. “Up and down all day.”
“Oo, Tigger, are they really?”
“Tl show you,” said Tigger bravely, “and you
can sit on my back and watch me.” For of all the
things which he had said Tiggers could do, the only
one he felt really certain about suddenly was climb-
ing trees.
“Oo, Tigger, 00, Tigger, 00, Tigger!” squeaked
Roo excitedly.
62 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
So he sat on Tigger’s back and up they went.
And for the first ten feet Tigger said happily to
himself, “Up we go!”
And for the next ten feet he said:
“I always said Tiggers could climb trees.”
And for the next ten feet he said:
“Not that it’s easy, mind you.”
And for the next ten feet he said:
“Of course, there’s the coming-down too. Back-
wards.”
And then he said:
“Which will be difficult . . .”
“Unless one fell...”
“when it would be...”
“FASY.”
And at the word “easy” the branch he was
standing on broke suddenly, and he just managed to
clutch at the one above him as he felt himself going
... and then slowly he got his chin over it... and
then one back paw ... and then the other... until
at last he was sitting on it, breathing very quickly,
and wishing that he had gone in for swimming
instead,
Roo climbed off, and sat down next to him.
“Oo, Tigger,” he said excitedly, “are we at the
top?”
“No,” said Tigger.
“Are we going to the top?”
TIGGERS DON’T CLIMB TREES 63
“No,” said Tigger.
“Oh!” said Roo rather sadly. And then he went on
hopefully: “That was a lovely bit just now, when
you pretended we were going to fall-bump-to-the-
bottom, and we didn’t. Will you do that bit again?”
“NO,” said Tigger.
Roo was silent for a little while, and then he said,
“Shall we eat our sandwiches, Tigger?” And Tig-
ger said, “Yes, where are they?” And Roo said, “At
the bottom of the tree.” And Tigger said, “I don’t
think we’d better eat them just yet.” So they didn’t.
By and by Pooh and Piglet came along. Pooh was
telling Piglet in a singing voice that it didn’t seem to
matter, if he didn’t get any fatter, and he didn’t
think he was getting any fatter, what he did; and
Piglet was wondering how long it would be before
his haycorn came up.
“Look, Pooh!” said Piglet suddenly. ““There’s
something in one of the Pine Trees.”
“So there is!” said Pooh, looking up wonderingly.
“There’s an Animal.”
Piglet took Pooh’s arm, in case Pooh was fright-
ened.
“Is it One of the Fiercer Animals?” he said, look-
ing the other way.
Pooh nodded.
“It’s a Jagular,” he said.
64 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“What do Jagulars do?” asked Piglet, hoping that
they wouldn’t.
“They hide in the branches of trees, and drop on
you as you go underneath,” said Pooh. “Christo-
pher Robin told me.”
“Perhaps we better hadn’t go underneath, Pooh.
In case he dropped and hurt himself.”
“They don’t hurt themselves,” said Pooh. ““They’re
such very good droppers.”
Piglet still felt that to be underneath a Very
Good Dropper would be a Mistake, and he was just
going to hurry back for something which he had
forgotten when the Jagular called out to them.
“Help! Help!” it called.
“That’s what Jagulars always do,” said Pooh, much
TIGGERS DON’T CLIMB TREES 65
interested, “They call ‘Help! Help!’ and then when
you look up, they drop on you.”
“T’m looking down,” cried Piglet loudly, so as the
Jagular shouldn’t do the wrong thing by accident.
Something very excited next to the Jagular heard
him, and squeaked:
“Pooh and Piglet! Pooh and Piglet!”
All of a sudden Piglet felt that it was a much
nicer day than he had thought it was. All warm and
sunny——
“Pooh!” he cried. “I believe it’s Tigger and Roo!”
“So it is,” said Pooh. “I thought it was a Jagular
and another Jagular.”
“Hallo, Roo!” called Piglet. “What are you
doing?”
“We can’t get down, we can’t get down!” cried
Roo. “Isn’t it fun? Pooh, isn’t it fun, Tigger and [
1”?
.
66 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
are living in a tree, like Owl, and we're going to
stay here for ever and ever. I can see Piglet’s house.
Piglet, I can see your house from here. Aren’t we
high? Is Owl’s house as high up as this?”
“How did you get there, Roo?” asked Piglet.
“On Tigger’s back! And Tiggers can’t climb
downwards, because their tails get in the way, only
upwards, and Tigger forgot about that when we
started, and he’s only just remembered. So we've
got to stay here for ever and ever—unless we go
higher. What did you say, Tigger? Oh, Tigger says
if we go higher we shan’t be able to see Piglet’s
house so well, so we’re going to stop here.”
“Piglet,” said Pooh solemnly, when he had heard
all this, “what shall we do?” And he began to eat
Tigger’s sandwiches.
“Are they stuck?” asked Piglet anxiously.
Pooh nodded.
“Couldn’t you climb up to them?”
“I might, Piglet, and I might bring Roo down on
my back, but I couldn’t bring Tigger down. So we
must think of something else.” And in a thoughtful
way he began to eat Roo’s sandwiches, too.
Whether he would have thought of anything be-
fore he had finished the last sandwich, I don’t know,
but he had just got to the last but one when there
TIGGERS DON’T CLIMB TREES 67
was a crackling in the bracken, and Christopher
Robin and Eeyore came strolling along together.
“T shouldn’t be surprised if it hailed a good deal
tomorrow,” Eeyore was saying. “Blizzards and
what-not. Being fine today doesn’t Mean Anything.
It has no sig—what’s that word? Well, it has none
of that. It’s just a small piece of weather.”
“There’s Pooh!” said Christopher Robin, who
didn’t much mind what it did tomorrow, as long as
he was out in it. “Hallo, Pooh!”
“It’s Christopher Robin!” said Piglet. “He'll know
what to do.”
They hurried up to him.
“Oh, Christopher Robin,” began Pooh.
“And Eeyore,” said Eeyore.
“Tigger and Roo are right up the Six Pine Trees,
and they can’t get down, and——”
“And I was just saying,” put in Piglet, “that if
only Christopher Robin——”
“And Eeyore——”
“If only you were here, then we could think of
something to do.”
Christopher Robin looked up at Tigger and Roo,
and tried to think of something.
“{ thought,” said Piglet earnestly, “that if Eeyore
stood at the bottom of the tree, and if Pooh stood
on Eeyore’s back, and if I stood on Pooh’s shoul-
ders—”
68 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
‘‘And if Eeyore’s back snapped suddenly, then we
could all laugh. Ha ha! Amusing in a quiet way,”
said Feyore, “but not really helpful.”
“Well,” said Piglet meekly, “J thought——”
“Would it break your back, Eeyore?” asked Pooh,
very much surprised.
“That’s what would be so interesting, Pooh. Not
being quite sure till afterwards.”
Pooh said “Oh!” and they all began to think
again.
“T’ve got an idea!” cried Christopher Robin sud-
denly.
“Listen to this, Piglet,” said Eeyore, “and then
you'll know what we're trying to do.”
“T'll take off my tunic and we'll each hold a cor-
ner, and then Roo and Tigger can jump into it, and
it will be all soft and bouncy for them, and they
won't hurt themselves.”
“Getting Tigger down,” said Eeyore, “and Not
hurting anybody. Keep those two ideas in your
head, Piglet, and you'll be all right.”
But Piglet wasn’t listening, he was so agog at the
thought of seeing Christopher Robin’s blue braces
again. He had only seen them once before, when he
was much younger, and, being a little over-excited
by them, had had to go to bed half an hour earlier
than usual; and he had always wondered since if
they were really as blue and as bracing as he had
TIGGERS DON’T CLIMB TREES 69
thought them. So when Christopher Robin took his
tunic off, and they were, he felt quite friendly to
Eeyore again, and held the corner of the tunic next
to him and smiled happily at him. And Eeyore
whispered back: “I’m not saying there won’t be an
Accident now, mind you. They’re funny things,
Accidents. You never have them till you’re having
them.”
When Roo understood what he had to do, he
was wildly excited, and cried out: “Tigger, Tigger,
we're going to jump! Look at me jumping, Tigger!
Like flying, my jumping will be. Can Tiggers do
it?” And he squeaked out: “I’m coming, Christo-
pher Robin!” and he jumped—straight into the mid-
dle of the tunic. And he was going so fast that he
bounced up again almost as high as where he was
before—and went on bouncing and saying, “Oo!”
for quite a long time—and then at last he stopped
and said, “Oo, lovely!” And they put him on the
ground.
“Come on, Tigger,” he called out. “It’s easy.”
But Tigger was holding on to the branch and
saying to himself: “It’s all very well for Jumping
Animals like Kangas, but it’s quite different for
Swimming Animals like Tiggers.” And he thought
of himself floating on his back down a river, or
striking out from one island to another, and he felt
that that was really the life for a Tigger.
70 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Come along,” called Christopher Robin. “You'll
be all right.”
“Just wait a moment,” said Tigger nervously.
“Small piece of bark in my eye.” And he moved
slowly along his branch.
“Come on, it’s easy!” squeaked Roo. And sud-
denly Tigger found how easy it was.
“Ow!” he shouted as the tree flew past him.
“Look out!” cried Christopher Robin to the others.
There was a crash, and a tearing noise, and a con-
fused heap of everybody on the ground.
Christopher Robin and Pooh and Piglet picked
themselves up first, and then they picked Tigger
up, and underneath everybody else was Eeyore.
“Oh, Eeyore!” cried Christopher Robin. “Are you
hurt?” And he felt him rather anxiously, and dusted
him and helped him to stand up again.
Eeyore said nothing for a long time. And then he
said: “Is Tigger there?”
Tigger was there, feeling Bouncy again already.
“Yes,” said Christopher Robin. “Tigger’s here.”
“Well, just thank him for me,” said Eeyore.
CHAPTER V
IN WHICH Rabbit Has aBusy Day, and We
Learn W hat Christopher Robin
Does in the Mornings
L. WAS going to be one of Rabbit’s
busy days. As soon as he woke up he felt impor-
tant, as if everything depended upon him. It was
just the day for Organizing Something, or for
Writing a Notice Signed Rabbit, or for Seeing
What Everybody Else Thought About It. It was a
perfect morning for hurrying round to Pooh, and
saying, “Very well, then, I’ll tell Piglet,” and then
going to Piglet, and saying, “Pooh thinks—but per-
haps I'd better see Owl first.” It was a Captainish
sort of day, when everybody said, “Yes, Rabbit”
and “No, Rabbit,” and waited until he had told
them.
He came out of his house and sniffed the warm
spring morning as he wondered what he would do.
Kanga’s house was nearest, and at Kanga’s house
7z
RABBIT’S BUSY DAY 73
was Roo, who said “Yes, Rabbit” and “No, Rabbit”
almost better than anybody else in the Forest; but
there was another animal there nowadays, the
strange and Bouncy Tigger; and he was the sort of
Tigger who was always in front when you were
showing him the way anywhere, and was generally
out of sight when at last you came to the place and
said proudly “Here we are!”
“No, not Kanga’s,” said Rabbit thoughtfully to
hss,
himself, as he curled his whiskers in the sun; and, to
make quite sure that he wasn’t going there, he
turned to the left and trotted off in the other direc-
tion, which was the way to Christopher Robin’s
house.
74 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“After all,” said Rabbit to himself, “Christopher
Robin depends on Me. He’s fond of Pooh and Pig-
let and Eeyore, and so am I, but they haven’t any
Brain. Not to notice. And he respects Owl, because
you can’t help respecting anybody who can spell
TUESDAY, even if he doesn’t spell it right; but
spelling isn’t everything. There are days when spell-
ing Tuesday simply doesn’t count. And Kanga is
too busy looking after Roo, and Roo is too young
and Tigger is too bouncy to be any help, so there’s
really nobody but Me, when you come to look at
it. Pll go and see if there’s anything he wants doing,
and then I'll do it for him. It’s just the day for
doing things.”
He trotted along happily, and by-and-by he
crossed the stream and came to the place where his
friends-and-relations lived. There seemed to be
even more of them about than usual this morning,
and having nodded to a hedgehog or two, with
whom he was too busy to shake hands, and having
said, “Good morning, good morning,” importantly
to some of the others, and “Ah, there you are,”
kindly, to the smaller ones, he waved a paw at them
over his shoulder, and was gone; leaving such an
air of excitement and I-don’t-know-what behind
him, that several members of the Beetle family, in-
cluding Henry Rush, made their way at once to the
Hundred Acre Wood and began climbing trees, in
RABBIT’S BUSY DAY 75
the hope of getting to the top before it happened,
whatever it was, so that they might see it properly.
Rabbit hurried on by the edge of the Hundred
Acre Wood, feeling more important every minute,
and soon he came to the tree where Christopher
Robin lived. He knocked at the door, and he called
out once or twice, and then he walked back a little
way and put his paw up to keep the sun out, and
called to the top of the tree, and then he turned all
round and shouted “Hallo!” and “I say!” “It’s Rab-
bit!” —but nothing happened. Then he stopped and
listened, and everything stopped and listened with
him, and the Forest was very lone and still and
76 . HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
peaceful in the sunshine, until suddenly a hundred
miles above him a lark began to sing.
“Bother!” said Rabbit. “He’s gone out.”
He went back to the green front door, just to
make sure, and he was turning away, feeling that
his morning had got all spoilt, when he saw a piece
of paper on the ground. And there was a pin in it,
as if it had fallen off the door.
“Ha!” said Rabbit, feeling quite happy again. “An-
other notice!”
This is what it said:
GON OUT
BACKSON
BISY
BACKSON.
Cc. R.
“Ha!” said Rabbit again. “I must tell the others.”
And he hurried off importantly.
The nearest house was Owl’s, and to Owl’s
House in the Hundred Acre Wood he made his
way. He came to Owl’s door, and he knocked and
he rang, and he rang and he knocked, and at last
Owl’s head came out and said “Go away, I’m think-
ing—oh it’s you?” which was how he always began.
“Owl,” said Rabbit shortly, “you and I have brains.
The others have fluff. If there is any thinking to be
done in this Forest—and when I say thinking I mean
thinking—you and I must do it.”
RABBIT’S BUSY DAY 77
“Yes,” said Owl. “I was.”
“Read that.”
Owl took Christopher Robin’s notice from Rab-
bit and looked at it nervously. He could spell his
own name WOL, and he could spell Tuesday so
that you knew it wasn’t Wednesday, and he could
read quite comfortably when you weren’t looking
over his shoulder and saying “Well?” all the time,
and he could——
“Well?” said Rabbit.
“Yes,” said Owl, looking Wise and Thoughtful.
“I see what you mean. Undoubtedly.”
“Well?”
“Exactly,” said Owl. “Precisely.” And he added,
after a little thought, “If you had not come to me,
I should have come to you.”
“Why?” asked Rabbit.
78 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“For that very reason,” said Owl, hoping that
something helpful would happen soon.
“Yesterday morning,” said Rabbit solemnly, “I
went to see Christopher Robin. He was out. Pinned
on his door was a notice.”
“The same notice?”
“A different one. But the meaning was the same.
It’s very odd.”
“Amazing,” said Owl, looking at the notice again,
and getting, just for a moment, a curious sort of
feeling that something had happened to Christopher
Robin’s back. “What
did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“The best thing,” said Owl
wisely.
“Well?” said Rabbit again,
as Ow] knew he was going to.
“Exactly,” said Owl.
For a little while he couldn’t think of anything
more; and then, all of a sudden, he had an idea.
“Tell me, Rabbit,” he said, “the exact words of
the first notice. This is very important. Everything
depends on this. The exact words of the first notice.”
“It was just the same as that one really.”
Owl looked at him, and wondered whether to
push him off the tree; but, feeling that he could al-
ways do it afterwards, he tried once more to find
out what they were talking about.
RABBIT’S BUSY DAY 79
“The exact words, please,” he said, as if Rabbit
hadn’t spoken.
“It just said, ‘Gon out. Backson.’ Same as this,
only this says ‘Bisy Backson’ too.”
Ow] gave a great sigh of relief.
“Ah!” said Owl. “Now we know where we are.”
“Yes, but where’s Christopher Robin?” said Rab-
pit. ““That’s the point.”
Owl looked at the notice again. To one of his
education the reading of it was easy. “Gone out,
Backson. Bisy, Backson”—just the sort of thing
you’d expect to see on a notice.
“Tt is quite clear what has happened, my dear Rab-
bit,” he said. “Christopher Robin has gone out
somewhere with Backson. He and Backson are busy
together. Have you seen a Backson anywhere about
in the Forest lately?”
“I don’t know,” said Rabbit. ‘“That’s what I came
to ask you. What are they like?”
“Well,” said Owl, “the Spotted or Herbaceous
Backson is just a——”
“At least,” he said, “it’s really more of a——”
“Of course,” he said, “it depends on the——”
“Well,” said Owl, “the fact is,” he said, “I don’t
know what they’re like,” said Owl frankly.
“Thank you,” said Rabbit. And he hurried off to
see Pooh.
Before he had gone very far he heard a noise. So
he stopped and listened. This was the noise.
80 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
NOISE, BY POOH
Oh, the butterflies are flying,
Now the winter days are dying,
And the primroses are trying
To be seen.
And the turtle-doves are cooing,
And the woods are up and doing,
For the violets are blue-ing
In the green.
Oh, the honey-bees are gumming
On their little wings, and humming
That the summer, which is coming,
Will be fun.
And the cows are almost cooing,
And the turtle-doves are mooing,
Which is why a Pooh is poohing
In the sun.
For the spring is really springing;
You can see a skylark singing,
And the blue-bells, which are ringing,
Can be heard.
And the cuckoo isn’t cooing,
But he’s cucking and he’s ooing,
And a Pooh is simply poohing
Like a bird.
“Hallo, Pooh,” said Rabbit.
“Hallo, Rabbit,” said Pooh dreamily.
RABBIT’S BUSY DAY 81
“Did you make that song up?”
“Well, I sort of made it up,” said Pooh. “It isn’t
Brain,” he went on humbly, “because You Know
Why, Rabbit; but it comes to me sometimes.”
“Ah!” said Rabbit, who never let things come to
him, but always went and fetched them. “Well, the
point is, have you seen a Spotted or Herbaceous
Backson in the Forest, at all?”
“No,” said Pooh. “Not a—no,” said Pooh. “I saw
Tigger just now.”
“That’s no good.”
“No,” said Pooh. “I thought it wasn’t.”
“Have you seen Piglet?”
“Yes,” said Pooh. “I suppose that isn’t any good
either?” he asked meekly.
“Well, it depends if he saw anything.”
“He saw me,” said Pooh.
Rabbit sat down on the ground next to Pooh and,
feeling much less important like that, stood up again.
82 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“What it all comes to is this,” he said. “What does
Christopher Robin do in the morning nowadays?”
“What sort of thing?”
“Well, can you tell me anything you’ve seen him
do in the morning? These last few days.”
“Yes,” said Pooh. “We had breakfast together yes-
terday. By the Pine Trees. I'd made up a little
basket,
just a little, fair-sized basket,
an ordinary biggish sort of
basket, full of-——”
RABBIT’S BUSY DAY 83
“Yes, yes,” said Rabbit, “but I mean later than
that. Have you seen him between eleven and
twelve?”
“Well,” said Pooh, “at eleven o’clock—at eleven
o’clock—well, at eleven o’clock, you see, I generally
get home about then. Because I have One or Two
Things to Do.”
“Quarter past eleven, then?”
“Well——” said Pooh.
“Half past.”
“Yes,” said Pooh. “At half past—or perhaps later—
I might see him.”
And now that he did think of it, he began to
remember that he badn’t seen Christopher Robin
about so much lately. Not in the mornings. After-
noons, yes; evenings, yes; before breakfast, yes, just
after breakfast, yes. And then, perhaps, “See you
again, Pooh,” and off he’d go.
“That’s just it,” said Rabbit, “Where?”
“Perhaps he’s looking for something.”
“What?” asked Rabbit.
“That’s just what I was going to say,” said Pooh.
And then he added, “Perhaps he’s looking for a—
for a——”
“A Spotted or Herbaceous Backson?”
“Yes,” said Pooh. “One of those. In case it isn’t.”
Rabbit looked at him severely.
“T don’t think you're helping,” he said.
84 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“No,” said Pooh. “I do try,” he added humbly.
Rabbit thanked him for trying, and said that he
would now go and see Eeyore, and Pooh could
walk with him if he liked. But Pooh, who felt an-
other verse of his song coming on him, said he
would wait for Piglet, good-bye, Rabbit; so Rabbit
went off.
But, as it happened, it was Rabbit who saw Piglet
first. Piglet had got up early that morning to pick
himself a bunch of violets; and when he had picked
them and put them in a pot in the middle of his
house, it suddenly came over him that nobody had
ever picked Eeyore a bunch of violets, and the
more he thought of this, the more he though how
sad it was to be an Animal who had never had a
bunch of violets picked for him. So he hurried out
again, saying to himself, “Eeyore, Violets,” and
then “Violets, Eeyore,” in case he forgot, because
it was that sort of day, and he picked a large bunch
RABBIT’S BUSY DAY 85
and trotted along, smelling them, and feeling very
happy, until he came to the place where Eeyore was.
“Oh, Eeyore,” began Piglet a little nervously, be-
cause Eeyore was busy.
Eeyore put outa paw and waved him away.
“Tomorrow,” said Eeyore. “Or the next day.”
Piglet came a little closer to see what it was.
Eeyore had three sticks on the ground, and was
looking at them. Two of the sticks were touching
at one end, but not at the other, and the third stick
was laid across them. Piglet thought that perhaps it
was a Trap of some kind.
“Oh, Eeyore,” he began again, “just——”
“Is that little Piglet?” said Eeyore, still looking
hard at his sticks.
“Yes, Eeyore, and I—”
“Do you know what this is?”
“No,” said Piglet.
“Tr’s an A.”
“Oh,” said Piglet.
86 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Not O, A,” said Eeyore severely. “Can’t you
hear, or do you think you have more education
than Christopher Robin?”
“Yes,” said Piglet. “No,” said Piglet very quickly.
And he came closer still.
“Christopher Robin said it was an A, and an A it
is—until somebody treads on me,” Eeyore added
sternly.
Piglet jumped backwards hurriedly, and smelt at
his violets.
“Do you know what A means, little Piglet?”
“No, Eeyore, I don’t.”
“It means Learning, it means Education, it means
all the things that you and Pooh haven’t got. That’s
what A means.”
“Oh,” said Piglet again. “I mean, does it?” he ex-
plained quickly.
“T’m telling you. People come and go in this For-
est, and they say, ‘It’s only Eeyore, so it doesn’t
count.’ They walk to and fro saying ‘Ha ha!’ But
do they know anything about A? They don’t. It’s
just three sticks to them. But to the Educated—
mark this, little Piglet—to the Educated, not mean-
ing Poohs and Piglets, it’s a great and glorious A.
Not,” he added, “just something that anybody can
come and breathe on.”
Piglet stepped back nervously, and Jooked round
for help.
RABBIT’S BUSY DAY 87
“Here’s Rabbit,” he said gladly. “Hallo, Rabbit.”
Rabbit came up importantly, nodded to Piglet,
and said, “Ah, Eeyore,” in the voice of one who
would be saying “Good-bye” in about two more
minutes.
“There’s just one thing I wanted to ask you,
Eeyore. What happens to Christopher Robin in the
mornings nowadays?”
“What’s this that I’m looking at?” said Eeyore,
still looking at it.
“Three sticks,” said Rabbit promptly.
“You see?” said Eeyore to Piglet. He turned to
Rabbit. “I will now answer your question,” he said
solemnly.
“Thank you,” said Rabbis.
88 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“What does Christopher Robin do in the morn-
ings? He learns. He becomes Educated. He instigo-
rates—I think that is the word he mentioned, but I
may be referring to something else—he instigorates
Knowledge. In my small way I also, if I have the
word right, am—am doing what he does. That, for
instance, is——”
“An A,” said Rabbit, “but not a very good one.
Well, I must get back and tell the others.”
Eeyore looked at his sticks and then he looked at
Piglet.
“What did Rabbit say it was?” he asked.
“An A,” said Piglet.
“Did you tell him?”
“No, Eeyore, I didn’t. I expect he just knew.”
“He knew? You mean this A thing is a thing Rab-
bit knew?”
“Yes, Eeyore. He’s clever, Rabbit is.”
“Clever!” said Eeyore scornfully, putting a foot
heavily on his three sticks. “Education!” said
Eeyore bitterly, jumping on his six sticks. “What is
Learning?” asked Eeyore as he kicked his twelve
sticks into the air. “A thing Rabbit knows! Ha!”
“I think——” began Piglet nervously.
“Don’t,” said Eeyore.
“T think Violets are rather nice,” said Piglet. And
he laid his bunch in front of Eeyore and scampered
off.
RABBIT’S BUSY DAY 89
Next morning the notice on Christopher Robin’s
door said:
GONE OUT
BACK SOON
C. R.
Which is why all the animals in the Forest—ex-
cept, of course, the Spotted and Herbaceous Back-
son—now know what Christopher Robin does in
the mornings.
CHAPTER VI
IN WHICH Pooh Invents a New Game
and Eeyore Joins In
B, THE TIME it came to the edge
of the Forest the stream had grown up, so that it
was almost a river, and, being grown-up, it did not
run and jump and sparkle along as it used to do
when it was younger, but moved more slowly. For
it knew now where it was going, and it said to it-
self, “There is no hurry. We shall get there some
day.” But all the little streams higher up in the For-
est went this way and that, quickly, eagerly, having
so much to find out before it was too late.
There was a broad track, almost as broad as a
road, leading from the Outland to the Forest, but
before it could come to the Forest, it had to cross
this river. So, where it crossed, there was a wooden
bridge, almost as broad as a road, with wooden rails
on each side of it. Christopher Robin could just get
his chin to the top rail, if he wanted to, but it was
more fun to stand on the bottom rail, so that he
could lean right over, and watch the river slipping
go
EEYORE JOINS THE GAME 91
slowly away beneath him. Pooh could get his chin
on to the bottom rail if he wanted to, but it was
more fun to lie down and get his head under it, and
watch the river slipping slowly away beneath him.
And this was the only way in which Piglet and Roo
could watch the river at all, because they were too
small to reach the bottom rail. So they would lie
down and watch it . . . and it slipped away very
slowly, being in no hurry to get there.
One day, when Pooh was walking towards this
bridge, he was trying to make up a piece of poetry
about fir-cones, because there they were, lying
about on each side of him, and he felt singy. So he
picked a fir-cone up, and looked at it, and said to
himself, “This is a very good fir-cone, and some-
thing ought to rhyme to it.” But he couldn’t think
of anything. And then this came into his head sud-
denly:
Here is a myst’ry
About a little fir-tree.
Owl says it’s his tree,
And Kanga says it’s her tree.
92 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Which doesn’t make sense,” said Pooh, “because
Kanga doesn’t live in a tree.”
He had just come to the bridge; and not looking
where he was going, he tripped over something,
and the fir-cone jerked out of his paw into the river.
“Bother,” said Pooh, as it floated slowly under the
bridge, and he went back to get another fir-cone
which had a rhyme to it. But then he thought that
he would just look at the river instead, because it
was a peaceful sort of day, so he lay down and
looked at it, and it slipped slowly away beneath
him... and suddenly, there was his fir-cone slip-
ping away too.
“That’s funny,” said Pooh. “I dropped it on the
other side,” said Pooh, ‘“‘and it came out on this side!
I wonder if it would do it again?” And he went
back for some more fir-cones.
It did. It kept on doing it. Then he dropped two
in at once, and leant over the bridge to see which
of them would come out first; and one of them did;
but as they were both the same size, he didn’t know
if it was the one which he wanted to win, or the
other one. So the next time he dropped one big one
and one little one, and the big one came out first,
which was what he had said it would do, and the
little one came out last, which was what he had said
it would do, so he had won twice .. . and when he
went home for tea, he had won thirty-six and lost
EEYORE JOINS THE GAME 93
twenty-eight, which meant that he was—that he had
—well, you take twenty-eight from thirty-six, and
that’s what he was. Instead of the other way round.
And that was the beginning of the game called
Poohsticks, which Pooh invented, and which he and
his friends used to play on the edge of the Forest.
But they played with sticks instead of fir-cones, be-
cause they were easier to mark.
Now one day Pooh and Piglet and Rabbit and
Roo were all playing Poohsticks together. They had
dropped their sticks in when Rabbit said “Go!” and
then they had hurried across to the other side of
the bridge, and now they were all leaning over the
edge, waiting to see whose stick would come out
first. But it was a long time coming, because the
river was very lazy that day, and hardly seemed to
mind if it didn’t ever get there at all.
“I can see mine!” cried Roo. “No, I can’t, it’s
something else. Can you see yours, Piglet? I thought
I could see mine, but I couldn’t. There it is! No, it
isn’t. Can you see yours, Pooh?”
“No,” said Pooh,
“T expect my stick’s stuck,” said Roo. “Rabbit, my
stick’s stuck. Is your stick stuck, Piglet?”
“They always take longer than you think,” said
Rabbit.
“How long do you think they’!l take?” asked Roo.
“I can see yours, Piglet,” said Pooh suddenly.
94 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Mine’s a sort of greyish one,” said Piglet, not
daring to lean too far over in case he fell in.
“Yes, that’s what I can see. It’s coming over on to
my side.”
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Rabbit leant over further than ever, looking for
his, and Roo wriggled up and down, calling out
“Come on, stick! Stick, stick, stick!” and Piglet got
very excited because his was the only one which
had been seen, and that meant that he was winning.
“It’s coming!” said Pooh.
EEYORE JOINS THE GAME 95
“Are you sure it’s mine?” squeaked Piglet
excitedly,
“Yes, because it’s grey. A big grey one. Here it
comes! A very—big—grey—— Oh, no, it isn’t, it’s
Eeyore.”
And out floated Eeyore.
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“Eeyore!” cried everybody.
Looking very calm, very dignified, with his legs
in the air, came Eeyore from beneath the bridge.
“It’s Eeyore!” cried Roo, terribly excited.
“Ts that so?” said Eeyore, getting caught up by a
little eddy, and turning slowly round three times,
“T wondered.”
“I didn’t know you were playing,” said Roo.
“I’m not,” said Eeyore.
“Eeyore, what are you doing there?” said Rabbit.
96 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Tl give you three guesses, Rabbit. Digging holes
in the ground? Wrong. Leaping from branch to
branch of a young oak tree? Wrong. Waiting for
somebody to help me out of the river? Right. Give
Rabbit ume, and he’ll always get the answer.”
“But, Eeyore,” said Pooh in distress, “what can
we—I mean, how shall we—do you think if we——”
“Yes,” said Eeyore. “One of those would be just
the thing. Thank you, Pooh.”
“He’s going round and round,” said Roo, much
impressed.
“And why not?” said Eeyore coldly.
“I can swim too,” said Roo proudly.
“Not round and round,” said Eeyore. “It’s much
more difficult. I didn’t want to come swimming at
all today,” he went on, revolving slowly. “But if,
when in, I decide to practise a slight circular move-
ment from right to left—or perhaps I should say,”
he added, as he got into another eddy, “from left to
right, just as it happens to occur to me, it is no-
body’s business but my own.”
There was a moment’s silence while everybody
thought.
“T’ve got a sort of idea,” said Pooh at last, “but I
don’t suppose it’s a very good one.”
“IT don’t suppose it is either,” said Eeyore.
“Go on, Pooh,” said Rabbit. “Let’s have it.”
“Well, if we all threw stones and things into the
EEYORE JOINS THE GAME 97
river on one side of Eeyore, the stones would make
waves, and the waves would wash him to the other
side.”
“That’s a very good idea,” said Rabbit, and Pooh
looked happy again.
“Very,” said Eeyore. “When I want to be washed,
Pooh, Ill let you know.”
“Supposing we hit him by mistake?” said Piglet
anxiously.
“Or supposing you missed him by mistake,” said
Eeyore. “Think of all the possibilities, Piglet, be-
fore you settle down to enjoy yourselves.”
But Pooh had got the biggest stone he could
carry, and was leaning over the bridge, holding it
in his paws.
98 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“T’m not throwing it, I’m dropping it, Eeyore,” he
explained. “And then I can’t miss—I mean I can’t
hit you. Could you stop turning round for a mo-
ment, because it muddles me rather?”
“No,” said Eeyore. “I /ike turning round.”
Rabbit began to feel that it was time he took
command.
“Now, Pooh,” he said, “when I say ‘Now!’ you
can drop it. Eeyore, when I say ‘Now!’ Pooh will
drop his stone.”
“Thank you very much, Rabbit, but I expect I
shall know.”
“Are you ready, Pooh? Piglet, give Pooh a little
more room. Get back a bit there, Roo. Are you
ready?”
“No,” said Eeyore.
“Now! said Rabbit.
Pooh dropped his stone. There was a loud splash,
aad Eeyore disappeared... .
EEYORE JOINS THE GAME 99
It was an anxious moment for the watchers on
the bridge. They looked and looked . . . and even
the sight of Piglet’s stick coming out a little in front
of Rabbit’s didn’t cheer them up as much as you
would have expected. And then, just as Pooh was
beginning to think that he must have chosen the
wrong stone or the wrong river or the wrong day
for his Idea, something grey showed for a moment
by the river bank . . . and it got slowly bigger and
bigger . . . and at last it was Eeyore coming out.
With a shout they rushed off the bridge, and
pushed and pulled at him; and soon he was standing
among them again on dry land.
“Oh, Eeyore, you are wet!” said Piglet, feeling
him.
Eeyore shook himself, and asked somebody to
explain to Piglet what happened when you had
been inside a river for quite a long time.
“Well done, Pooh,” said Rabbit kindly. “That was
a good idea of ours.”
“What was?” asked Eeyore.
100 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Hooshing you to the bank like that.”
“Hooshing me?” said Eeyore in surprise. “Hoosh-
ing me? You didn’t think I was hooshed, did you? |
dived. Pooh dropped a large stone on me, and so as
not to be struck heavily on the chest, I dived and
swam to the bank.”
“You didn’t really,” whispered Piglet to Pooh, so
as to comfort him.
“I didn’t think I did,” said Pooh anxiously.
“It’s just Eeyore,” said Piglet. “J thought your
Idea was a very good Idea.”
Pooh began to feel a little more comfortable, be-
cause when you are a Bear of Very Little Brain,
and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that
a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is
quite different when it gets out into the open and
has other people looking at it. And, anyhow, Eeyore
was in the river, and now he wasn’t, so he hadn’t
done any harm.
“How did you fall in, Eeyore?” asked Rabbit, as
he dried him with Piglet’s handkerchief.
“I didn’t,” said Eeyore.
“But how——”
“I was BOUNCED,” said Eeyore.
“Oo,” said Roo excitedly, “did somebody push
you?”
“Somebody BOUNCED me. I was just thinking
by the side of the river—thinking, if any of you
EEYORE JOINS THE GAME 101
know what that means, when I received a loud
BOUNCE.”
“Oh, Eeyore!” said everybody.
“Are you sure you didn’t slip?” asked Rabbit
wisely.
“Of course I slipped. If you’re standing on the
slippery bank of a river, and somebody BOUNCES
you loudly from behind, you slip. What did you
think I did?”
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“But who did it?” asked Roo.
Eeyore didn’t answer.
“I expect it was Tigger,” said Piglet nervously.
“But, Eeyore,” said Pooh, “was it a Joke, or an
Accident? I mean——”
“I didn’t stop to ask, Pooh. Even at the very bot-
tom of the river I didn’t stop to say to myself, ‘Is
this a Hearty Joke, or is it the Merest Accident?’ I
102 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
just floated to the surface, and said to myself, ‘It’s
wet.’ If you know what I mean.”
“And where was Tigger?” asked Rabbit.
Before Eeyore could answer, there was a loud
noise behind them, and through the hedge came
Tigger himself.
“Hallo, everybody,” said Tigger cheerfully.
“Hallo, Tigger,” said Roo.
Rabbit became very important suddenly.
“Tigger,” he said solemnly, “what happened just
now?”
“Just when?” said Tigger a little uncomfortably.
“When you bounced Eeyore into the river.”
“T didn’t bounce him.”
“You bounced me,” said Eeyore gruffly.
“T didn’t really. I had a cough, and I happened to
be behind Eeyore, and I said ‘Grrrr—oppp—
ptschschschz.”
“Why?” said Rabbit, helping Piglet up, and dust-
ing him. “It’s all right, Piglet.”
“It took me by surprise,” said Piglet nervously.
“That’s what I call bouncing,” said Eeyore. “Tak-
ing people by surprise. Very unpleasant habit. I
don’t mind Tigger being in the Forest,” he went
on, “because it’s a large Forest, and there’s plenty
of room to bounce in it. But I don’t see why he
should come into my little corner of it, and bounce
there. It isn’t as if there was anything very wonder-
ful about my little corner. Of course for people
EEYORE JOINS THE GAME 103
who like cold, wet, ugly bits it is something rather
special, but otherwise it’s just a corner, and if any-
body feels bouncy——”
“I didn’t bounce, I coughed,” said Tigger crossly.
“Bouncy or coffy, it’s all the same at the bottom
of the river.”
“Well,” said Rabbit, “all I can say is—well, here’s
Christopher Robin, so he can say it.”
Christopher Robin came down from the Forest
to the bridge, feeling all sunny and careless, and
just as if twice nineteen didn’t matter a bit, as it
didn’t on such a happy afternoon, and he thought
that if he stood on the bottom rail of the bridge,
and leant over, and watched the river slipping
slowly away beneath him, then he would suddenly
know everything that there was to be known, and
he would be able to tell Pooh, who wasn’t quite
sure about some of it. But when he got to the
bridge and saw all the animals there, then he knew
that it wasn’t that kind of afternoon, but the other
kind, when you wanted to do something.
“It’s like this, Christopher Robin,” began Rabbit.
“Tigger——”
“No, I didn’t,” said Tigger.
“Well, anyhow, there I was,” said Eeyore.
“But [ don’t think he meant to,” said Pooh.
‘He just is bouncy,” said Piglet, “and he can’t
help it.”
“Try bouncing me, Tigger,” said Roo eagerly.
, 104 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Eeyore, Tigger’s going to try me. Piglet, do you
think——”
“Yes, yes,” said Rabbit, “we don’t all want to
speak at once. The point is, what does Christopher
Robin think about it?”
“All I did was I coughed,” said Tigger.
“He bounced,” said Eeyore.
“Well, I sort of boffed,” said Tigger.
“Hush!” said Rabbit, holding up his paw. “What
does Christopher Robin think about it all? That’s
the point.”
EEYORE JOINS THE GAME 105
“Well,” said Christopher Robin, not quite sure
what it was all about, “J think—”’
“Yes?” said everybody.
“7 think we all ought to play Poohsticks.”
So they did. And Eeyore, who had never played
it before, won more times than anybody else; and
Roo fell in twice, the first time by accident and the
106 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
second time on purpose, because he suddenly saw
Kanga coming from the Forest, and he knew he’d
have to go to bed anyhow. So then Rabbit said he’d
go with them; and Tigger and Eeyore went off to-
gether, because Eeyore wanted to tell Tigger How
to Win at Poohsticks, which you do by letting
your stick drop in a twitchy sort of way, if you
understand what I mean, Tigger; and Christopher
Robin and Pooh and Piglet were left on the bridge
by themselves.
For a long time they looked at the river beneath
them, saying nothing, and the river said nothing
too, for it felt very quiet and peaceful on this sum-
mer afternoon.”
“Tigger is all right really,” said Piglet lazily.
“Of course he is,” said Christopher Robin.
“Everybody is really,” said Pooh. ‘“That’s what /
think,” said Pooh. “But I don’t suppose I’m right,”
he said.
“Of course you are,” said Christopher Robin.
CHAPTER VII
IN WHICH Tigger Ils Unbounced
O.. pay Rabbit and Piglet were
sitting outside Pooh’s front door listening to Rab-
bit, and Pooh was sitting with them. It was a drowsy
summer afternoon, and the Forest was full of gentle
sounds, which all seemed to be saying to Pooh,
“Don’t listen to Rabbit, listen to me.” So he got
into a comfortable position for not listening to
Rabbit, and from time to time he opened his eyes
to say “Ah!” and then closed them again to say
“True,” and from time to time Rabbit said, “You
see what I mean, Piglet” very earnestly, and Piglet
nodded earnestly to show that he did.
“In fact,” said Rabbit, coming to the end of it at
last, “Tigger’s getting so Bouncy nowadays that it’s
time we taught him a lesson. Don’t you think so,
Piglet?”
Piglet said that Tigger was very Bouncy, and
that if they could think of a way of unbouncing
him, it would be a Very Good Idea.
107
108 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Just what I feel,” said Rabbit. “What do you
say, Pooh?”
Pooh opened his eyes with a jerk and said,
“Extremely.”
“Extremely what?” asked Rabbit.
“What you were saying,” said Pooh. “Undoubt-
ably.”
Piglet gave Pooh a stiffening sort of nudge, and
Pooh, who felt more and more that he was some-
where else, got up slowly and began to look for
himself.
“But how shall we do it?” asked Piglet. “What
sort of a lesson, Rabbit?”
“That’s the point,” said Rabbit.
TIGGER IS UNBOUNCED 109
The word “lesson” came back to Pooh as one he
had heard before somewhere.
“There’s a thing called Twy-stymes,” he said.
“Christopher Robin tried to teach it to me once,
but it didn’t.”
“What didn’t?” said Rabbit.
“Didn’t what?” said Piglet.
Pooh shook his head.
“I don’t know,” he said. “It just didn’t. What are
we talking about?”
“Pooh,” said Piglet reproachfully, “haven’t you
been listening to what Rabbit was saying?”
“I listened, but I had a small piece of fluff in my
ear. Could you say it again, please, Rabbit?”
Rabbit never minded saying things again, so he
asked where he should begin from; and when Pooh
had said from the moment when the fluff got in his
ear, and Rabbit had asked when that was, and Pooh
had said he didn’t know because he hadn’t heard
properly, Piglet settled it all by saying that what
they were trying to do was, they were just trying
to think of a way to get the bounces out of Tigger,
because however much you liked him, you couldn’t
deny it, he did bounce.
“Oh, I see,” said Pooh.
“There’s too much of him,” said Rabbit, “that’s
what it comes to.”
Pooh tried to think, and all he could think of was
110 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
something which didn’t help at all. So he hummed
it very quietly to himself.
If Rabbit
Was bigger
And fatter
And stronger,
Or bigger
Than Tigger,
If Tigger was smaller,
Then Tigger’s bad habit
Of bouncing at Rabbit
Would matter
No longer,
If Rabbit
Was taller.
“What was Pooh saying?” asked Rabbit. “Any
good?”
“No,” said Pooh sadly. “No good.”
“Well, I’ve got an idea,” said Rabbit, “and here it
is. We take Tigger for a long explore, somewhere
where he’s never been, and we lose him there, and
next morning we find him again, and—mark my
words—he’ll be a different Tigger altogether.”
“Why?” said Pooh.
“Because he’ll be a Humble Tigger. Because he’ll
be a Sad Tigger, a Melancholy Tigger, a Small and
Sorry Tigger, and Oh-Rabbit-I-am-glad-to-see-you
Tigger. That’s why.”
TIGGER IS UNBOUNCED Ill
“Will he be glad to see me and Piglet, too?”
“Of course.”
“That’s good,” said Pooh.
“T should hate him to go on being Sad,” said Piglet
doubtfully.
“Tiggers never go on being Sad,” explained Rab-
bit. “They get over it with Astonishing Rapidity. I
asked Owl, just to make sure, and he said that that’s
what they always get over it with. But if we can
make Tigger feel Small and Sad just for five min-
utes, we shall have done a good deed.”
“Would Christopher Robin think so?” asked
Piglet.
“Yes,” said Rabbit. “He'd say ‘You've done a
good deed, Piglet. I would have done it myself,
only I happened to be doing something else. Thank
you, Piglet.’ And Pooh, of course.”
Piglet felt very glad about this, and he saw at
once that what they were going to do to Tigger
was a good thing to do, and as Pooh and Rabbit
were doing it with him, it was a thing which even a
Very Small Animal could wake up in the morning
and be comfortable about doing. So the only ques-
tion was, where should they lose Tigger?
“We'll take him to the North Pole,” said Rabbit,
“because it was a very long explore finding it, so it
will be a very long explore for Tigger unfinding it
again.”
112 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
It was now Pooh’s turn to feel very glad, because
it was he who had first found the North Pole, and
when they got there, Tigger would see a notice
which said, “Discovered by Pooh, Pooh found it,”
and then Tigger would know, which perhaps he
didn’t know, the sort of Bear Pooh was. That sort
of Bear.
So it was arranged that they should start next
morning, and that Rabbit, who lived near Kanga
and Roo and Tigger, should now go home and ask
Tigger what he was doing tomorrow, because if he
wasn’t doing anything, what about coming for an
explore and getting Pooh and Piglet to come too?
And if Tigger said “Yes” that would be all right,
and if he said “No”——
“He won't,” said Rabbit. “Leave it to me.” And
he went off busily.
The next day was quite a different day. Instead
of being hot and sunny, it was cold and misty.
Pooh didn’t mind for himself, but when he thought
of all the honey the bees wouldn’t be making, a
cold and misty day always made him feel sorry for
them. He said so to Piglet when Piglet came to
fetch him, and Piglet said that he wasn’t thinking
of that so much, but of how cold and miserable it
would be being lost all day and night on the top of
the Forest. But when he and Pooh had got to Rab-
TIGGER IS UNBOUNCED 113
bit’s house, Rabbit said it was just the day for
them, because Tigger always bounced on ahead of
everybody, and as soon as he got out of sight, they
would hurry away in the other direction, and he
would never see them again.
“Not never?” said Piglet.
“Well, not until we find him again, Piglet. To-
morrow, or whenever it is. Come on. He’s waiting
for us.”
When they got to Kanga’s house, they found
that Roo was waiting too, being a great friend of
Tigger’s, which made it Awkward; but Rabbit
whispered “Leave this to me” behind his paw to
Pooh, and went up to Kanga.
“I don’t think Roo had better come,” he said.
“Not today.”
“Why not?” said Roo, who wasn’t supposed to be
listening.
“Nasty cold day,” said Rabbit, shaking his head.
“And you were coughing this morning.”
“How do you know?” asked Roo indignantly.
“Oh, Roo, you never told me,” said Kanga
reproachfully.
“It was a Biscuit Cough,” said Roo, “not one you
tell about.”
“I think not today, dear. Another day.”
“Tomorrow?” said Roo hopefully.
114 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“We'll see,” said Kanga.
“You're always seeing, and nothing ever hap-
pens,” said Roo sadly.
“Nobody could see on a day like this, Roo,” said
Rabbit. “I don’t expect we shall get very far, and
then this afternoon we’ll all—we’ll all—we’ll—ah, .
Tigger, there you are. Come on. Good-bye, Roo!
This afternoon we’ll—come on, Pooh! All ready?
That’s right. Come on.”
So they went. At first Pooh and Rabbit and Pig-
let walked together, and Tigger ran round them in
circles, and then, when the path got narrower,
Rabbit, Piglet and Pooh walked one after another,
A a
Ms Are kh iit M Fie Se
and Tigger ran round them in oblongs, and by-
and-by, when the gorse got very prickly on each
side of the path, Tigger ran up and down in front
of them, and sometimes he bounced into Rabbit and
sometimes he didn’t. And as they got higher, the
mist got thicker, so that Tigger kept disappearing,
and then when you thought he wasn’t there, there
TIGGER IS UNBOUNCED 115
he was again, saying “I say, come on,” and before
you could say anything, there he wasn’t.
Rabbit turned round and nudged Piglet.
“The next time,” he said. “Tell Pooh.”
“The next time,” said Piglet to Pooh.
“The next what?” said Pooh to Piglet.
Tigger appeared suddenly, bounced into Rabbit,
and disappeared again. “Now!” said Rabbit. He
jumped into a hollow by the side of the path, and
Pooh and Piglet jumped after him. They crouched
in the bracken, listening. The Forest was very
silent when you stopped and listened to it. They
could see nothing and hear nothing.
“H’sh!” said Rabbit.
“T am,” said Pooh.
There was a pattering noise . . . then silence again.
“Hallo!” said Tigger, and he sounded so close
116 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
suddenly that Piglet would have jumped if Pooh
hadn’t accidentally been sitting on most of him.
“Where are you?” called Tigger.
Rabbit nudged Pooh, and Pooh looked about for
Piglet to nudge, but couldn’t find him, and Piglet
went on breathing wet bracken as quietly as he
could, and felt very brave and excited.
“That’s funny,” said Tigger.
There was a moment’s silence, and then they
heard him pattering off again. For a little longer
they waited, until the Forest had become so still
that it almost frightened them, and then Rabbit got
up and stretched himself.
“Well?” he whispered proudly. “There we are!
Just as I said.”
“T’ve been thinking,” said Pooh, “and I think——”
“No,” said Rabbit. “Don’t. Run. Come on.” And
they all hurried off, Rabbit leading the way.
“Now,” said Rabbit, after they had gone a little
TIGGER IS UNBOUNCED 117
way, “we can talk. What were you going to say,
Pooh?”
“Nothing much. Why are we going along here?”
“Because it’s the way home.”
“Oh!” said Pooh.
“I think it’s more to the right,” said Piglet nerv-
ously. “What do you think, Pooh?”
Pooh looked at his two paws. He knew that one
of them was the right, and he knew that when you
had decided which one of them was the right, then
the other one was the left, but he never could re-
member how to begin.
“Well,” he said slowly——
“Come on,” said Rabbit. “I know it’s this way.”
They went on. Ten minutes later they stopped
again.
“It’s very silly,” said Rabbit, “but just for the mo-
ment I—— Ah, of course. Come on...”
118 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Here we are,” said Rabbit ten minutes later. “No,
we're not...”
“Now,” said Rabbit ten minutes later, “I think we
ought to be getting—or are we a little bit more to
the right than I thought? . . .”
“Tt’s a funny thing,” said Rabbit ten minutes later,
“how everything looks the same in a mist. Have
you noticed it, Pooh?”
Pooh said that he had.
“Lucky we know the Forest so well, or we might
get lost,” said Rabbit half an hour later, and he gave
the careless laugh which you give when you know
the Forest so well that you can’t get lost.
Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
“Pooh!” he whispered.
“Yes, Piglet?”
“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw. “I just
wanted to be sure of you.”
TIGGER IS UNBOUNCED 119
When Tigger had finished waiting for the others
to catch him up, and they hadn’t, and when he had
got tired of having nobody to say, “I say, come on”
to, he thought he would go home. So he trotted
back; and the first thing Kanga said when she saw
him was ‘‘There’s a good Tigger. You're just in
time for your Strengthening Medicine,” and she
poured it out for him. Roo said proudly, “I’ve had
mine,” and Tigger swallowed his and said, “So have
I,” and then he and Roo pushed each other about in
a friendly way, and Tigger accidentally knocked
over one or two chairs by accident, and Roo acci-
dentally knocked over one on purpose, and Kanga
said, “Now then, run along.”
“Where shall we run along to?” asked Roo.
“You can go and collect some fir-cones for me,”
said Kanga, giving them a basket.
So they went to the Six Pine Trees, and threw
fir-cones at each other until they had forgotten
what they came for, and they left the basket under
120 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
the trees and went back to dinner. And it was just
as they were finishing dinner that Christopher
Robin put his head in at the door.
“Where’s Pooh?” he asked.
“Tigger dear, where’s Pooh?” said Kanga. Tigger
explained what had happened at the same time that
Roo was explaining about his Biscuit Cough and
Kanga was telling them not both to talk at once, so
it was some time before Christopher Robin guessed
that Pooh and Piglet and Rabbit were all lost in the
mist on the top of the Forest.
“It’s a funny thing about Tiggers,” whispered
Tigger to Roo, “how Tiggers never get lost.”
“Why don’t they, Tigger?”
“They just don’t,” explained Tigger. ““That’s how
it is.”
“Well,” said Christopher Robin, “we shall have to
go and find them, that’s all. Come on, Tigger.”
“I shall have to go and find them,” explained Tig-
ger to Roo.
“May I find them too?” asked Roo eagerly.
“T think not today, dear,” said Kanga. “Another
day.”
Well if they’re lost tomorrow, may I find them?”
“We'll see,” said Kanga, and Roo, who knew
what that meant, went into a corner, and practised
jumping out at himself, partly because he wanted
to practise this, and partly because he didn’t want
TIGGER IS UNBOUNCED 12)
Christopher Robin and Tigger to think that he
minded when they went off without him.
“The fact is,” said Rabbit, “‘we’ve missed our way
somehow.”
They were having a rest in a small sand-pit on
the top of the Forest. Pooh was getting rather tired
of that sand-pit, and suspected it of following them
about, because whichever direction they started in,
they always ended up at it, and each time, as it
came through the mist at them, Rabbit said tri-
umphantly, “Now I know where we are!” and
Pooh said sadly, “So do I,” and Piglet said nothing.
He had tried to think of something to say, but the
only thing he could think of was, “Help, help!”
and it seemed silly to say that, when he had Pooh
and Rabbit with him.
“Well,” said Rabbit, after a long silence in which
nobody thanked him for the nice walk they were
having, “we'd better get on, I suppose. Which way
shall we try?”
“How would it be,” said Pooh slowly, “if, as soon
as we're out of sight of this Pit, we try to find it
again?”
“What’s the good of that?” said Rabbit.
“Well,” said Pooh, “we keep looking for Home
and not finding it, so I thought that if we looked
for this Pit, we'd be sure not to find it, which would
122 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
be a Good Thing, because then we might find some-
thing that we weren’t looking for, which might be
just what we were looking for, really.”
“I don’t see much sense in that,” said Rabbit.
“No,” said Pooh humbly, “there isn’t. But there
was going to be when I began it. It’s just that some-
thing happened to it on the way.”
“If I walked away from this Pit, and then walked
back to it, of course I should find it.”
“Well, I thought perhaps you wouldn’t,” said
Pooh. “T just thought.”
“Try,” said Piglet suddenly. “We'll wait here
for you.”
Rabbit gave a laugh to show how silly Piglet
was, and walked into the mist. After he had gone a
hundred yards, he turned and walked back again...
and after Pooh and Piglet had waited twenty min-
utes for him, Pooh got up.
“I just thought,” said Pooh. “Now then, Piglet,
let’s go home.”
“But, Pooh,” cried Piglet, all excited, “do you
know the way?”
“No,” said Pooh. “But there are twelve pots of
honey in my cupboard, and they’ve been calling to
me for hours. I couldn’t hear them properly before,
because Rabbit would talk, but if nobody says any-
thing except those twelve pots, I think, Piglet, I
shall know where they’re calling from. Come on.”
TIGGER IS UNBOUNCED . 123
They walked off together; and for a long time
Piglet said nothing, so as not to interrupt the pots;
and then suddenly he made a squeaky noise . . . and
an 0o-noise . . . because now he began to know
where he was; but he still didn’t dare to say so out
loud, in case he wasn’t. And just when he was get-
ting so sure of himself that it didn’t matter whether
the pots went on calling or not, there was a shout
from in front of them, and out of the mist came
Christopher Robin.
“Oh, there you are,” said Christopher Robin care-
lessly, trying to pretend that he hadn’t been Anxious.
“Here we are,” said Pooh.
“Where’s Rabbit?”
“T don’t know,” said Pooh.
124 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Oh—well, I expect Tigger will find him. He’s
sort of looking for you all.”
“Well,” said Pooh, “I’ve got to go home for some-
thing, and so has Piglet, because we haven’t had it
yet, and——”
“Tl come and watch you,” said Christopher Robin.
So he went home with Pooh, and watched him
for quite a long time . . . and all the time he was
watching, Tigger was tearing round the Forest
making loud yapping noises for Rabbit. And at last
a very Small and Sorry Rabbit heard him. And the
Small and Sorry Rabbit rushed through the mist at
the noise, and it suddenly turned into Tigger; a
Friendly Tigger, a Grand Tigger, a Large and
Helpful Tigger, a Tigger who bounced, if he
TIGGER IS UNBOUNCED 125
bounced at all, in just the beautiful way a Tigger
ought to bounce.
“Oh, Tigger, I am glad to see you,” cried Rabbit.
CHAPTER VIII
IN WHICH Piglet Does a Very Grand
Thing
H... way between Pooh’s house
and Piglet’s house was a Thoughtful Spot where
they met sometimes when they had decided to go
and see each other, and as it was warm and out of
the wind they would sit down there for a little and
wonder what they would do now that they bad
seen each other. One day when they had decided
not to do anything, Pooh made up a verse about it,
so that everybody should know what the place
was for.
This warm and sunny Spot
Belongs to Pooh.
And here he wonders what
He’s going to do.
Oh, bother, I forgot—
It’s Piglet’s too.
Now one autumn morning when the wind had
*\own all the leaves off the trees in the night, and
126
A VERY GRAND THING 127
was trying to blow the branches off, Pooh and Pig-
let were sitting in the Thoughtful Spot and won-
dering.
“What I think,” said Pooh, “is I think we'll go to
Pooh Corner and see Eeyore, because perhaps his
iouse has been blown down, and perhaps he’d like
1s to build it again.”
“What I think,” said Piglet, “is I think we'll go
ind see Christopher Robin, only he won’t be there,
so we can’t.”
“Let’s go and see everybody,” said Pooh. “Because
when you’ve been walking in the wind for miles,
and you suddenly go into somebody’s house, and
he says, ‘Hallo, Pooh, you're just in time for a little
smackerel of something,’ and you are, then it’s what
I call a Friendly Day.”
Piglet thought that they ought to have a Reason
for going to see everybody, like Looking for Small
or Organizing an Expotition, if Pooh could think
of something.
Pooh could.
“We'll go because it’s Thursday,” he said, “and
we'll go to wish everybody a Very Happy Thurs-
day. Come on, Piglet.”
They got up; and when Piglet had sat down
again, because he didn’t know the wind was so
strong, and had been helped up by Pooh, they
rtarted off. They went to Pooh’s house first, and
128 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
luckily Pooh was at home just as they got there, so
he asked them in, and they had some, and then they
went on to Kanga’s house, holding on to each
other, and shouting “Isn’t it?” and “What?” and “I
can’t hear.” By the time they got to Kanga’s house
they were so buffeted that they stayed to lunch.
Just at first it seemed rather cold outside afterwards,
so they pushed on to Rabbit’s as quickly as they
could.
“We've come to wish you a Very Happy Thurs-
day,” said Pooh, when he had gone in and out once
or twice just to make sure that he could get out
again.
“Why, what’s going to happen on Thursday?”
asked Rabbit, and when Pooh had explained, and
Rabbit, whose life was’ made up of Important
Things, said, “Oh, I thought you’d really come
about something,” they sat down for a little...
A VERY GRAND THING 129
and by-and-by Pooh and Piglet went on again. The
wind was behind them now, so they didn’t have to
shout.
“Rabbit’s clever,” said Pooh thoughtfully.
“Yes,” said Piglet, ““Rabbit’s clever.”
“And he has Brain.”
“Yes,” said Piglet, “Rabbit has Brain.”
There was a long silenee.
“I suppose,” said Pooh, “that that’s why he never
understands anything.”
Christopher Robin was at home by this time, be-
cause it was the afternoon, and he was so glad to see
them that they stayed there until very nearly tea-
time, and then they had a Very Nearly tea, which
is one you forget about afterwards, and hurried on
to Pooh Corner, so as to see Eeyore before it was
too late to have a Proper Tea with Owl.
“Hallo, Eeyore,” they called out cheerfully.
“Ah!” said Eeyore. “Lost your way?”
“We just came to see you,” said Piglet. “And to
see how your house was. Look, Pooh, it’s still
standing!”
“I know,” said Eeyore. “Very odd. Somebody
ought to have come down and pushed it over.”
“We wondered whether the wind would blow it
down,” said Pooh.
“Ah, that’s why nobody’s bothered, I suppose. I
thought perhaps they’d forgotten.”
130 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Well, we're very glad to see you, Eeyore, and
now we're going on to see Owl.”
“That’s right. You'll like Owl. He flew past a day
or two ago and noticed me. He didn’t actually say
anything, mind you, but he knew it was me. Very
friendly of him, I thought. Encouraging.”
Pooh and Piglet shuffled about a little and said,
“Well, good-bye, Eeyore” as lingeringly as they
could, but they had a long way to go, and wanted
to be getting on.
“Good-bye,” said Eeyore. “Mind you don’t get
blown away, little Piglet. You’d be missed. People
would say ‘Where’s little Piglet been blown to?’—
really wanting to know. Well, good-bye. And
thank you for happening to pass me.”
“Good-bye,” said Pooh and Piglet for the last
time, and they pushed on to Owl’s house.
The wind was against them now, and Piglet’s ears
streamed behind him
A VERY GRAND THING 131
as he fought his way along, and it seemed hours be-
fore he got them into the shelter of the Hundred
Acre Wood and they stood up straight again, to
listen, a little nervously, to the roaring of the gale
among the tree-tops.
“Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were
underneath it?”
“Supposing it didn’t,” said Pooh after careful
thought.
Piglet was comforted by this, and in a little while
they were knocking and ringing very cheerfully at
Owl’s door.
“Hallo, Owl,” said Pooh. “I hope we’re not too
late for—— I mean, how are you, Owl? Piglet and I
just came to see how you were, because it’s Thurs-
day.”
“Sit down, Pooh, sit down, Piglet,” said Owl
kindly. “Make yourselves comfortable.”
They thanked him, and made themselves as com-
fortable as they could.
“Because, you see, Owl,” said Pooh, “we've been
hurrying, so as to be in time for—so as to see you
before we went away again.”
Owl nodded solemnly.
“Correct me if I am wrong,” he said, “but am I
right in supposing that it is a very Blusterous day
outside?” ,
“Very,” said Piglet, who was quietly thawing his
A VERY GRAND THING 133
. ears, and wishing that he was safely back in his own
house.
“I thought so,” said Owl. “It was on just such a
blusterous day as this that my Uncle Robert, a por-
trait of whom you see upon the wall on your right,
Piglet, while returning in the late forenoon from
a—— What’s that?”
There was a loud cracking noise.
“Look out!” cried Pooh. “Mind the clock! Out of
the way, Piglet! Piglet, I’m falling on you!”
“Help!” cried Piglet.
Pooh’s side of the room was slowly tilting up-
wards and his chair began sliding down on Piglet’s.
134 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
The clock slithered gently along the mantelpiece,
collecting vases on the way, until they all crashed
together on to what had once been the floor, but
was now trying to see what it looked like as a wall.
Uncle Robert, who was going to be the new hearth-
rug, and was bringing the rest of his wall with him
as carpet, met Piglet’s chair just as Piglet was ex-
pecting to leave it, and for a little while it became
very difficult to remember which was really the
north. Then there was another loud crack . . . Owl’s
room collected itself feverishly . . . and there was
silence.
In a corner of the room, the table-cloth began to
wriggle.
Then it wrapped itself into a ball and rolled
A VERY GRAND THING 135
Then it jumped up
and down once or twice, and put out two ears. It
rolled across the room again, and unwound itself.
“Pooh,” said Piglet nervously.
“Yes?’’ said one of the chairs.
“Where are we?”
“I’m not quite sure,” said the chair.
“Are we—are we in Owl’s House?”
“I think so, because we were just going to have
tea, and we hadn’t had it.”
“Oh!” said Piglet. “Well, did Owl always have a
letter-box in his ceiling?”
136 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Has he?”
“Yes, look.”
“T can’t,” said Pooh. “I’m face downwards under
something, and that, Piglet, is a very bad position
for looking at ceilings.”
“Well, he has, Pooh.”
“Perhaps he’s changed it,” said Pooh. “Just for a
change.”
There was a disturbance behind the table in the
other corner of the room, and Owl was with them
again.
“Ah, Piglet,” said Owl, looking very much an-
noyed; “where’s Pooh?”
A VERY GRAND THING 137
“I’m not quite sure,” said Pooh.
Owl turned at his voice, and frowned at as much
of Pooh as he could see.
“Pooh,” said Owl severely, “did you do that?”
“No,” said Pooh humbly. “I don’t think so.”
“Then who did?”
“T think it was the wind,” said Piglet. “I think
your house has blown down.”
“Oh, 1s that it? | thought it was Pooh.”
“No,” said Pooh.
“If it was the wind,” said Owl, considering the
matter, ‘“‘then it wasn’t Pooh’s fault. No blame can
be attached to him.” With these kind words he flew
up to look at his new ceiling.
“Piglet!” called Pooh in a loud whisper.
Piglet leant down to him.
“Yes, Pooh?”
“What did he say was attached to me?”
“He said he didn’t blame you.”
“Oh! I thought he meant— Oh, I see.”
“Owl,” said Piglet, “come down and help Pooh.”
Owl, who was admiring his letter-box, flew down
again. Together they pushed and pulled at the arm-
chair, and in a little while Pooh came out from
underneath, and was able to look round him again.
“Well!” said Owl. “This is a nice state of things!”
‘What are we going to do, Pooh? Can you think
of anything?” asked Piglet.
138 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Well, I bad just thought of something,” said
Pooh. “It was just a little thing I thought of.” And
he began to sing:
I Jay on my chest
And I thought it best
To pretend I was having an evening rest;
I lay on my tum
And I tried to hum
But nothing particular seemed to come.
My face was flat
On the floor, and that
Is all very well for an acrobat;
But it doesn’t seem fair
To a Friendly Bear
To stiffen him out with a basket-chair.
And a sort of sqoze
Which grows and grows
Is not too nice for his poor old nose,
And a sort of squch
Is much too much
For his neck and his mouth
and his ears and such.
“That was all,” said Pooh.
Owl coughed in an unadmiring sort of way, and
said that, if Pooh was sure that was all, they could
now give their minds to the Problem of Escape.
“Because,” said Owl, “we can’t go out by what
used to be the front door. Something’s fallen on it.”
A VERY GRAND THING 139
“But how else can you go out?” asked Piglet
anxiously.
“That is the Problem, Piglet, to which I am asking
Pooh to give his mind.”
Pooh sat on the floor which had once been a wall,
and gazed up at the ceiling which had once been
another wall, with a front door in it which had once
been a front door, and tried to give his mind to it.
“Could you fly up to the letter-box with Piglet on
your back?” he asked.
“No,” said Piglet quickly. “He couldn’t.”
Owl explained about the Necessary Dorsal Mus-
cles. He had explained this to Pooh and Christopher
Robin once before, and had been waiting ever since
for a chance to do it again, because it is a thing
which you can easily explain twice before anybody
knows what you are talking about.
“Because you see, Owl, if we could get Piglet into
the letter-box, he might squeeze through the place
where the letters come, and climb down the tree
and run for help.”
Piglet said hurriedly that he had been getting
bigger lately, and couldn’t possibly, much as he
would like to, and Owl said that he had had his
letter-box made bigger lately in case he got bigger
letters, so perhaps Piglet might, and Piglet said,
“But you said the necessary you-know-whats
wouldnt,’ and Ow] said, “No, they won't, so it’s
140 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
no good thinking about it,” and Piglet said “Then
we'd better think of something else,” and began to
at once.
But Pooh’s mind had gone back to the day when
he had saved Piglet from the flood, and everybody
had admired him so much; and as that didn’t often
happen he thought he would like it to happen again.
And suddenly, just as it had come before, an idea
came to him.
“Owl,” said Pooh, “I have thought of something.”
“Astute and Helpful Bear,” said Owl.
Pooh looked proud at being called a stout and
helpful bear, and said modestly that he just hap-
pened to think of it. You tied a piece of string to
Piglet, and you flew up to the letter-box with the
other end in your beak, and you pushed it through
the wire and brought it down to the floor, and you
and Pooh pulled hard at this end, and Piglet went
slowly up at the other end. And there you were.
“And there Piglet is,” said Owl. “If the string
doesn’t break.”
“Supposing it does?” asked Piglet, wanting to
know.
“Then we try another piece of string.”
This was not very comforting to Piglet, because
however many pieces of string they tried pulling
up with, it would always be the same him coming
down; bur still, it did seem the only thing to do. So
A VERY GRAND THING 141
with one last look back in his mind at all the happy
hours he had spent in the Forest not being pulled
up to the ceiling by a piece of string, Piglet nodded
bravely at Pooh and said that it was a Very Clever
pup-pup-pup Clever pup-pup Plan.
“It won’t break,” whispered Pooh comfortingly,
“because you’re a Small Animal, and I'll stand
underneath, and if you save us all, it will be a Very
Grand Thing to talk about afterwards, and perhaps
I'll make up a Song, and people will say ‘It was so
grand what Piglet did that a Respectful Pooh Song
was made about it.”
Piglet felt much better after this, and when every-
thing was ready, and he found himself slowly going
up to the ceiling, he was so proud that he would
have called out “Look at me!” if he hadn’t been
afraid that Pooh and Owl would let go of their end
of the string and look at him.
142 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Up we go!” said Pooh cheerfully.
“The ascent is proceeding as expected,” said Owl
helpfully. Soon it was over. Piglet opened the letter-
box and climbed in. Then, having untied himself,
he began to squeeze into the slit, through which in
the old days when front doors were front doors,
many an unexpected letter that WOL had written
to himself, had come slipping.
He squeezed and he squoze, and then with one
A VERY GRAND THING 143
last sqooze he was out. Happy and excited he turned
round to squeak a last message to the prisoners.
“It’s all right,” he called through the letter-box.
“Your tree is blown right over, Owl, and there’s a
branch across the door, but Christopher Robin and
I can move it, and we'll bring a rope for Pooh, and
Pll go and tell him now, and I can climb down
quite easily, I mean it’s dangerous but I can do it all
right, and Christopher Robin and I will be back in
about half-an-hour. Good-bye, Pooh!” And with-
out waiting to hear Pooh’s answering “Good-bye,
and thank you, Piglet,” he was off.
“Half-an-hour,” said Owl, settling himself com-
fortably. “That will just give me time to finish that
story I was telling you about my Uncle Robert—a
portrait of whom you see underneath you. Now let
me see, where was I? Oh, yes. It was on just such a
blusterous day as this that my Uncle Robert——”
Pooh closed his eyes.
CHAPTER IX
IN WHICH Eeyore Finds the Wolery
and Owl Moves Into It
P... had wandered into the Hun-
dred Acre Wood, and was standing in front of
what had once been Owl’s House. It didn’t look at
all like a house now; it looked like a tree which had
been blown down; and as soon as a house looks like
that, it is time you tried to find another one. Pooh
had had a Mysterious Missage underneath his front
door that morning, saying, “I AM SCERCHING
FOR A NEW HOUSE FOR OWL SO HAD
YOU RABBIT,” and while he was wondering what
it meant, Rabbit had come in and read it for him.
“Tm leaving one for all the others,” said Rabbit,
“and telling them what it means, and they’ll all
search too. I’m in a hurry, good-bye.” And he had
run off.
Pooh followed slowly. He had something better
to do than to find a new house for Ow]; he had to
make up a Pooh song about the old one. Because he
144
EEYORE FINDS THE WOLERY 145
had promised Piglet days and days ago that he
would, and whenever he and Piglet had met since,
Piglet didn’t actually say anything, but you knew
at once why he didn’t; and if anybody mentioned
Hums or Trees or String or Storms-in-the-Night,
Piglet’s nose went all pink at the tip and he talked
about something quite different in a hurried sort
of way.
“But it isn’t Easy,” said Pooh to himself, as he
looked at what had once been Owl’s House. ‘‘Be-
cause Poetry and Hums aren’t things which you
146 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
get, they’re things which get you. And all you can
do is to go where they can find you.”
He waited hopefully. ...
“Well,” said Pooh after a long wait, “I shall begin
‘Here lies a tree’ because it does, and then I'll see
what happens.”
This is what happened.
Here lies a tree which Owl (a bird)
Was fond of when it stood on end,
And Ow! was talking to a friend
Called Me (in case you hadn’t heard)
When something Oo occurred. °
For lo! the wind was blusterous
And flattened out his favourite tree;
And things looked bad for him and we—
Looked bad, I mean, for be and us—
Pve never known them wuss.
Then Piglet (PIGLET) thought a thing:
“Courage!” he said. “There’s always hope.
1 want a thinnish piece of rope.
Or, if there isn’t any bring
A thickish piece of string.”
So to the letter-box he rose,
While Pooh and Ow! said “Ob!”
and “Hum!”
And where the letters always come
(Called “LETTERS ONLY”) Piglet sqoze
His head and then bis toes,
EEYORE FINDS THE WOLERY 147
O gallant Piglet (PIGLET)! Ho!
Did Piglet tremble? Did be blinch?
No, No, he struggled inch by inch
Through LETTERS ONLY, as | know
Because I saw him go
He ran and ran, and then he stood
And shouted, “Help for Owl, a bird
And Pooh, a bear!” until he beard
The others coming through the wood
As quickly as they could.
“Help-help and Rescue!” Piglet cried
And showed the others where to go.
Sing bo! for Piglet (PIGLET) ho
And soon the door was opened wide
And we were both outside!
Sing ho! for Piglet, bo!
Ho!
“So there it is,” said Pooh, when he had sung this
to himself three times. “It’s come different from
what I thought it would, but it’s come. Now I must
go and sing it to Piglet.”
I AM SCERCHING FOR A NEW HOUSE
FOR OWL SO HAD YOU RABBIT.
“Whar’s all this?” said Eeyore.
Rabbit explained.
148 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“What’s the matter with his old house?” asked
Eeyore.
Rabbit explained.
“Nobody tells me,” said Eeyore. “Nobody keeps
me Informed. I make it seventeen days come Friday
since anybody spoke to me.”
“Tt certainly isn’t seventeen days——”
“Come Friday,” explained Eeyore.
“And today’s Saturday,” said Rabbit. “So that
would make it eleven days. And I was here myself
a week ago.”
“Not conversing,” said Eeyore. “Not first one and
then the other. You said ‘Hallo’ and Flashed Past. I
saw your tail in the distance as I was meditating my
reply. I bad thought of saying ‘What?’—but, of
course, it was then too late.”
“Well, I was in a hurry.”
“No Give and Take,” Eeyore went on. “No Ex-
change of Thought: ‘Hallo—Wbat’—— I mean, it
gets you nowhere, particularly if the other person’s
tail is only just in sight for the second half of the
conversation.”
“Tt’s your fault, Eeyore. You’ve never been to see
any of us. You just stay here in this one corner of
the Forest waiting for the others to come to you.
Why don’t you go to them sometimes?”
Eeyore was silent for a little while, thinking.
“There may be something in what you say, Rab-
EEYORE FINDS THE WOLERY 149
bit,” he said at last. “I must move about more. I
must come and go.”
“That's right, Eeyore. Drop in on any of us at any
time, when you feel like it.”
“Thank-you, Rabbit. And if anybody says in a
Loud Voice ‘Bother, it’s Eeyore,’ I can drop out
again.”
Rabbit stood on one leg for a moment.
“Well,” he said, “I must be going.”
“Good-bye,” said Eeyore.
“What? Oh, good-bye. And if you do come across
a house for Owl, you must let us know.”
“T will give my mind to it,” said Eeyore.
Rabbit went.
Pooh had found Piglet, and they were walking
back to the Hundred Acre Wood together.
“Piglet,” said Pooh a little shyly, after they had
walked for some time without saying anything.
“Yes, Pooh?”
“Do you remember when I said that a Respectful
Pooh Song might be written about You Know
What?”
“Did you, Pooh?” said Piglet, getting a little pink
round the nose. “Oh, yes, I believe you did.”
“It’s been written, Piglet.”
The pink went slowly up Piglet’s nose to his ears,
and settled there.
150 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Has it, Pooh?” he asked huskily. “About—
about-— That Time When?—— Do you mean
really written?”
“Yes, Piglet.”
The tips of Piglet’s ears glowed suddenly, and he
tried to say something; but even after he had husked
once or twice, nothing came out. So Pooh went on.
“There are seven verses in it.”
“Seven?” said Piglet as carelessly as he could. “You
don’t often get seven verses in a Hum, do you,
Pooh?”
“Never,” said Pooh. “I don’t suppose it’s ever been
heard of before.”
“Do the Others know yet?” asked Piglet, stop-
ping for a moment to pick up a stick and throw it
away.
“No,” said Pooh. “And I wondered which you
would like best. For me to hum it now, or to wait
till we find the others, and then hum it to all of
”
you.
EEYORE FINDS THE WOLERY 151
Piglet thought for a little.
“I think what I’d like best, Pooh, is I’d like you to
hum it to me mow—and—and then to hum it to all of
us. Because then Everybody would hear it, but I
could say ‘Oh, yes, Pooh’s told me,’ and pretend
not to be listening.”
So Pooh hummed it to him, all the seven verses
and Piglet said nothing, but just stood and glowed.
Never before had anyone sung ho for Piglet (PIG-
LET) ho all by himself. When it was over, he
wanted to ask for one of the verses over again, but
didn’t quite like to. It was the verse beginning “O
gallant Piglet,” and it seemed to him a very thought-
ful way of beginning a piece of poetry.
“Did I really do all that?” he said at last. —
“Well,” said Pooh, “in poetry—in a piece of
poetry—well, you did it, Piglet, because the poetry
says you did. And that’s how people know.”
“Oh!” said Piglet. “Because I—I thought I did
blinch a little. Just at first. And it says, ‘Did he
blinch no no.’ That’s why.”
“You only blinched inside,” said Pooh, “and that’s
the bravest way for a Very Small Animal not to
blinch that there is.”
Piglet sighed with happiness, and began to think
about himself. He was BRAVE...
When they got to Owl’s old house, they found
everybody else there except Eeyore. Christopher
EEYORE FINDS THE WOLERY 153
1) MAG SSaaeete =a
i Wi
ip "
g@
Robin was telling them what to do, and Rabbit was
telling them again directly afterwards, in case they
hadn’t heard, and then they were all doing it. They
had got a rope and were pulling Owl’s chairs and
pictures and things out of his old house so as to be
ready to put them into his new one. Kanga was
down below tying the things on, and calling out to
Owl, “You won’t want this dirty old dish-cloth any
more, will you, and what about this carpet, it’s all
154 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
in holes,” and Owl was calling back indignantly,
“Of course I do! It’s just a question of arranging
the furniture properly, and it isn’t a dish-cloth, it’s
my shawl.” Every now and then Roo fell in and
came back on the rope with the next article, which
flustered Kanga a little because she never knew
where to look for him. So she got cross with Owl
and said that his house was a Disgrace, all damp and
dirty, and it was quite time it did tumble down.
Look at that horrid bunch of toadstools growing
out of the floor there! So Ow] looked down, a little
surprised because he didn’t know about this, and
then gave a short sarcastic laugh, and explained that
that was his sponge, and that if people didn’t know
a perfectly ordinary bath-sponge when they saw it,
things were coming to a pretty pass. “Well!” said
Kanga, and Roo fell in quickly, crying, “I ust see
Owl’s sponge! Oh, there it is! Oh, Owl! Owl, it
isn’t a sponge, it’s a spudge! Do you know what a
spudge is, Owl? It’s when your sponge gets all—-—”
and Kanga said, “Roo, dear!” very quickly, because
that’s mot the way to talk to anybody who can spell
TUESDAY.
But they were all quite happy when Pooh and
Piglet came along, and they stopped working in
order to have a little rest and listen to Pooh’s new
song. So then they all told Pooh how good it was,
EEYORE FINDS THE WOLERY 155
and Piglet said carelessly, “It is good, isn’t it? I
mean as a song.”
“And what about the new house?” asked Pooh.
“Have you found it, Owl?”
“He’s found a name for it,” said Christopher
Robin, lazily nibbling at a piece of grass, “so now
all he wants is the house.”
“I am calling it this,” said Owl importantly, and
he showed them what he had been making. It was
a square piece of board with the name of the house
painted on it.
THE WOLERY
It was at this exciting moment that something
came through the trees, and bumped into Owl. The
board fell to the ground, and Piglet and Roo bent
over it eagerly.
156 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Oh, it’s you,” said Owl crossly.
“Hallo, Eeyore!” said Rabbit. “There you are!
Where have you been?” Eeyore took no notice of
them.
“Good morning, Christopher Robin,” he said,
brushing away Roo and Piglet, and sitting down on
THE WOLERY. “Are we alone?”
“Yes,” said Christopher Robin, smiling to himself.
“T have been told—the news has worked through
to my corner of the Forest—the damp bit down on
the right which nobody wants—that a certain Per-
son is looking for a house. I have found one for him.”
“Ah, well done,” said Rabbit kindly.
EEYORE FINDS THE WOLERY 157
Eeyore looked round slowly at him, and then
turned back to Christopher Robin.
“We have been joined by something,” he said in
a loud whisper. “But no matter. We can leave it
behind. If you will come with me, Christopher
Robin, I will show you the house.”
Christopher Robin jumped up.
“Come on, Pooh,” he said.
“Come on, Tigger!” cried Roo.
“Shall we go, Owl?” said Rabbit.
“Wait a moment,” said Owl, picking up his notice-
board, which had just come into sight again.
Eeyore waved them back.
“Christopher Robin and I are going for a Short
Walk,” he said, “not a Jostle. If he likes to bring
Pooh and Piglet with him, I shall be glad of their
company, but one must be able to Breathe.”
“That’s all right,” said Rabbit, rather glad to be
left in charge of something. “We'll go on getting
the things out. Now then, Tigger, where’s that
rope? What’s the matter, Owl?”
Owl, who had just discovered that his new ad-
dress was THE SMUDGE, coughed at Eeyore
sternly, but said nothing, and Eeyore, with most of
THE WOLERY behind him, marched off with his
friends.
So, in a little while, they came to the house which
Eeyore had found, and for some minutes before
158 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
they came to it, Piglet was nudging Pooh, and Pooh
was nudging Piglet, and they were saying, “It is!”
and “It can’t be!” and “It is, really!” to each other.
And when they got there, it really was.
“There!” said Eeyore proudly, stopping them out-
side Piglet’s house. “And the name on it, and every-
thing!”
“Oh!” cried Christopher Robin, wondering
whether to laugh or what.
“Just the house for Owl. Don’t you think so, little
Piglet?”
And then Piglet did a Noble Thing, and he did
it in a sort of dream, while he was thinking of all
the wonderful words Pooh had hummed about him.
“Yes, it’s just the house for Owl,” he said grandly.
“And I hope he’ll be very happy in it.” And then
he gulped twice, because he had been very happy
in it himself.
“What do you think, Christopher Robin?” asked
EEYORE FINDS THE WOLERY 159
Eeyore a little anxiously, feeling that something
wasn’t quite right.
Christopher Robin had a question to ask first,
and he was wondering how to ask it.
“Well,” he said at last, “it’s a very nice house, and
if your own house is blown down, you must go.
somewhere else, mustn’t you, Piglet? What would
you do, if your house was blown down?”
Before Piglet could think, Pooh answered for
him.
“He’d come and live with me,” said Pooh,
“wouldn’t you, Piglet?”
Piglet squeezed his paw.
“Thank you, Pooh,” he said, “I should love to.”
CHAPTER X
IN WHICH Christopher Robin and Poob
Come to an Enchanted Place,
and We Leave Them There
Coansrornes ROBIN was going
away. Nobody knew why he was going; nobody
knew where he was going; indeed, nobody even
knew why he knew that Christopher Robin was
going away. But somehow or other everybody in
the Forest felt thar it was happening at last. Even
Smallest-of-all, a friend-and-relation of Rabbit’s who
thought he had once seen Christopher Robin’s foot,
but couldn’t be quite sure because perhaps it was
something else, even S. of A. told himself that
Things were going to be Different; and Late and
Early, two other friends-and-relations, said, “Well,
Early?” and “Well, Late?” to each other in such
a hopeless sort of way that it really didn’t seem any
good waiting for the answer.
One day when he felt that he couldn’t wait any
160
AN ENCHANTED PLACE 161
longer, Rabbit brained out a Notice, and this is
what it said:
“Notice a meeting of everybody will meet at the
House at Pooh Corner to pass a Rissolution By
Order Keep to the Left Signed Rabbit.”
He had to write this out two or three times be-
fore he could get the rissolution to look like what
he thought it was going to when he began to spell
it: but, when at last it was finished, he took it round
to everybody and read it out to them. And they all
said they would come.
“Well,” said Eeyore that afternoon, when he saw
them all walking up to his house, “this is a surprise.
Am I asked too?”
“Don’t mind Eeyore,” whispered Rabbit to Pooh.
“T told him all about it this morning.”
162 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
Everybody said “How-do-you-do” to Eeyore,
and Eeyore said that he didn’t, not to notice, and
then they sat down; and as soon as they were all sit-
ting down, Rabbit stood up again.
“We all know why we're here,” he said, “but I
have asked my friend Eeyore——”
“That’s Me,” said Eeyore. “Grand.”
“I have asked him to Propose a Rissolution.” And
he sat down again. “Now then, Eeyore,” he said
“Don’t Bustle me,” said Eeyore, getting up slowly.
“Don’t now-then me.” He took a piece of paper
from behind his ear, and unfolded it. “Nobody
knows anything about this,” he went on. “This is
a Surprise.” He coughed in an important way, and
began again: “What-nots and Etceteras, before I
begin, or perhaps I should say, before I end, I have
a piece of Poetry to read to you. Hitherto—hitherto
—a long word meaning—well, you'll see what it
means directly—hitherto, as I was saying, all the
Poetry in the Forest has been written by Pooh, a
Bear with a Pleasing Manner but a Positively Star-
AN ENCHANTED PLACE 163
tling Lack of Brain. The Poem which I am now
about to read to you was written by Eeyore, or
Myself, in a Quiet Moment. If somebody will take
Roo’s bull’s-eye away from him, and wake up Owl,
we shall all be able to enjoy it. I call ir--POEM.”
This was it.
Christopher Robin is going.
At least I think he is.
Where?
Nobody knows.
But he is going—
I mean he goes
(To rhyme with “knows’”)
Do we care?
(To rhyme with “where”)
We do
Very much.
(I haven't got a rhyme for that
“is” in the second line yet.
Bother.)
(Now I baven’t got a rhyme for
bother. Bother.) ,
Those two bothers will have
to rhyme with each other
Buther.
The fact is this is more difficult
than I thought,
I ought—
(Very good indeed)
164 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
I ought
To begin again,
But it is easier
To stop.
Christopher Robin, good-bye,
I
(Good)
I
And all your friends
Sends—
I mean all your friend
Send—
(Very awkward this, it keeps
going wrong)
Well, anyhow, we send
Our love
END.
“If anybody wants to clap,” said Eeyore when he
had read this, “now is the time to do it.”
They all clapped.
“Thank you,” said Eeyore. “Unexpected and grati-
fying, if a little lacking in Smack.”
AN ENCHANTED PLACE
“It’s much better than mine,” said Pooh admir-
ingly, and he really thought it was.
€oR
“Well,” explained Eeyore modestly, “it was meant
to be.”
166 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“The rissolution,” said Rabbit, “is that we all sign
it, and take it to Christopher Robin.”
So it was signed PooH, PIGLET, WOL, EOR,
RABBIT, KANGA,
and they
all went off to Christopher Robin’s house with it.
AN ENCHANTED PLACE 167
“Hallo, everybody,” said Christopher Robin—
“Hallo, Pooh.”
They all said “Hallo,” and felt awkward and un-
happy suddenly, because it was a sort of good-bye
they were saying, and they didn’t want to think
about it. So they stood around, and waited for
somebody else to speak, and they nudged each other,
and said “Go on,” and gradually Eeyore was nudged
to the front, and the others crowded behind him.
“What is it, Eeyore?” asked Christopher Robin.
Eeyore swished his tail from side to side, so as to
encourage himself, and began.
“Christopher Robin,” he said, “‘we’ve come to say
—to give you—it’s called—written by—but we've
all—because we’ve heard, I mean we all know—well,
you see, it’s—we—you—well, that, to put it as shortly
as possible, is what it is.’ He turned round angrily
on the others and said, “Everybody crowds round
so in this Forest. There’s no Space. I never saw a
more Spreading lot of animals in my life, and all in
the wrong places. Can’t you see that Christopher
Robin wants to be alone? I’m going.” And he
humped off.
Not quite knowing why, the others began edging
away, and when Christopher Robin had finished
reading POEM, and was looking up to say, “Thank
you,” only Pooh was left.
“It’s a comforting sort of thing to have,” said
168 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
Christopher Robin, folding up the paper, and put-
ting it in his pocket. “Come on, Pooh,” and he
walked off quickly.
[7 wf
“What is it, Eeyore?” asked Christopher Robin.
AN ENCHANTED PLACE 169
“Where are we going?” said Pooh, hurrying after
him, and wondering whether it was to be an Ex-
plore or a What-shall-I-do-about-you-know-what.
170 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Nowhere,” said Christopher Robin.
So they began going there, and after they had
walked a little way Christopher Robin said:
“What do you like doing best in the world, Pooh?”
“Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best~—” and then
he had to stop and think. Because although Eating
Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a mo-
ment just before you began to eat it which was bet-
ter than when you were, but he didn’t know what
it was called. And then he thought that being with
Christopher Robin was a very good thing to do,
and having Piglet near was a very friendly thing to
have; and so, when he had thought it all out, he
said, “What I like best in the whole world is Me
and Piglet going to see You, and You saying ‘What
about a little something?’ and Me saying, ‘Well, I
shouldn’t mind a little something, should you, Pig-
let,’ and it being a hummy sort of day outside, and
birds singing.”
“I like that too,” said Christopher Robin, “but
what I like doing best is Nothing.”
“How do you do Nothing?” asked Pooh, after he
had wondered for a long tme.
“Well, it’s when people call out at you just as
you're going off to do it, What are you going to
do, Christopher Robin, and you say, Oh, nothing,
and then you go and do it.”
“Oh, I see,” said Pooh.
AN ENCHANTED PLACE 17!
“This is a nothing sort of thing that we’re doing
now.”
“Oh, I see,” said Pooh again.
“It means just going along, listening to all the
things you can’t hear, and not bothering.”
“Oh!” said Pooh.
They walked on, thinking of This and That, and
by-and-by they came to an enchanted place on the
very top of the Forest called Galleons Lap, which
is sixty-something trees in a circle; and Christopher
Robin knew that it was enchanted because nobody
had ever been able to count whether it was sixty-
three or sixty-four, not even when he tied a piece
of string round each tree after he had counted it.
Being enchanted, its floor was not like the floor of
the Forest, gorse and bracken and heather, but
close-set grass, quiet and smooth and green. It was
the only place in the Forest where you could sit
down carelessly, without getting up again almost at
once and looking for somewhere else. Sitting there
they could see the whole world spread out until it
reached the sky, and whatever there was all the
world over was with them in Galleons Lap.
Suddenly Christopher Robin began to tell Pooh
about some of the things: People called Kings and
Queens and something called Factors, and a place
called Europe, and an island in the middle of the
sea where no ships came, and how you make a Suc-
172 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
tion Pump (if you want to), and when Knights
were Knighted, and what comes from Brazil. And
AN ENCHANTED PLACE 173
Pooh, his back against one of the sixty-something
trees, and his paws folded in front of him, said
174 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
“Oh!” and “TI didn’t know,” and thought how won-
derful it would be to have a Real Brain which could
tell you things. And by-and-by Christopher Robin
came to an end of the things, and was silent, and he
sat there looking out over the world, and wishing it
wouldn’t stop.
But Pooh was thinking too, and he said suddenly
to Christopher Robin:
“Is it a very Grand thing to be an Afternoon,
what you said?”
“A what?” said Christopher Robin lazily, as he
listened to something else.
“On a horse,” explained Pooh.
“A Knight?”
“Oh, was that it?” said Pooh. “I thought it was
a—— Is it as Grand as a King and Factors and all
the other things you said?”
AN ENCHANTED PLACE 175
“Well, it’s not as grand as a King,” said Christo-
pher Robin, and then, as Pooh seemed disappointed,
he added quickly, “‘but it’s grander than Factors.”
“Could a Bear be one?”
“Of course he could!” said Christopher Robin.
“Tl make you one.” And he took a stick and
touched Pooh on the shoulder, and said, “Rise, Sir
Pooh de Bear, most faithful of all my Knights.”
So Pooh rose and sat down and said “Thank
you,” which is the proper thing to say when you
have been made a Knight, and he went into a dream
again, in which he and Sir Pomp and Sir Brazil and
Factors lived together with a horse, and were faith-
ful Knights (all except Factors, who looked after
the horse) to Good King Christopher Robin .
and every now and then he shook his head, and said
to himself “I’m not getting it right.” Then he began
176 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
to think of all the things Christopher Robin would
want to tell him when he came back from wherever
he was going to, and how muddling it would be for
a Bear of Very Little Brain to try and get them
right in his mind. “So, perhaps,” he said sadly to
himself, “Christopher Robin won’t tell me any
more,” and he wondered if being a Faithful Knight
meant that you just went on being faithful without
being told things.
Then, suddenly again, Christopher Robin, who
was still looking at the world, with his chin in his
hands, called out “Pooh!”
“Yes?” said Pooh.
“When ’'m—when—— Pooh!”
“Yes, Christopher Robin?”
“T’m not going to do Nothing any more.”
“Never again?”
“Well, not so much. They don’t let you.”
Pooh waited for him to go on, but he was silent
again.
“Yes, Christopher Robin?” said Pooh helpfully.
AN ENCHANTED PLACE 177
“Pooh, when I’m—you know—when I’m not doing
Nothing, will you come up here sometimes?”
“Just Me?”
“Yes, Pooh.”
“Will you be here too?”
“Yes, Pooh, I will be, really. 1 promise I will be,
Pooh.”
“That’s good,” said Pooh.
“Pooh, promise you won't forget about me, ever.
Not even when I’m a hundred.”
Pooh thought for a little.
“How old shall J be then?”
“Ninety-nine.”
Pooh nodded.
“T promise,” he said.
Still with his eyes on the world Christopher Robin
put out a hand and felt for Pooh’s paw.
“Pooh,” said Christopher Robin earnestly, “if I—
if I’m not quite——” he stopped and tried again—
“Pooh, whatever happens, you will understand,
won't you?”
“Understand what?”
“Oh, nothing.” He laughed and jumped to his
feet. ‘‘Come on!”
“Where?” said Pooh.
“Anywhere,” said Christopher Robin.
So they went off together. But wherever they
178 HOUSE AT POOH CORNER
go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in
that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a
little boy and his Bear will always be playing.
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